Jason Plato remains out front in second practice at Silverstone

Jason Plato remained the man to beat in second free practice ahead of the penultimate rounds of the BTCC season at Silverstone with the fastest lap seen to date this weekend.

Despite spits of rain throughout the session, the Power Maxed Racing man was able to go three tenths of a second quicker than he had in FP1 as drivers continued to find time around the resurfaced circuit.

“We started out of the box this morning with a good feeling and I’ve got a nice feeling in it,” he said. “We’ve tried a few things this morning and my tail is in the air – it’s good.”

As had been the case earlier in the day, title contender Dan Cammish was second fastest in his Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic with a best time a tenth of a second off Plato’s best, and only 0.032s quicker than his team-mate Matt Neal who continued his strong start to the weekend.

Tom Ingram, with his Toyota Corolla now back on song after his earlier issues, was fourth fastest ahead of Chris Smiley’s BTC Racing-run Honda and the leading BMW of Tom Oliphant.

Andrew Jordan again had the edge over WSR team-mate Colin Turkington, with the Pirtek Racing-backed BMW going seventh quickest and Turkington well outside the top ten with the 18th best time – despite being only three-tenths of a second slower.

Jake Hill, who had run in the top four early in the session, would end up eighth in his Audi S3, with the top ten completed by Adam Morgan and Ash Sutton.

Sutton would be one of two drivers – the other being team-mate Senna Proctor – be be black-flagged during the session for exceeding track limits.

Of the other main championship contenders, Rory Butcher was eleventh in his Cobra Sport AmD Honda, with Josh Cook 19th in the second of the BTC Racing entries.

Qualifying is currently scheduled for 15.15 local time.