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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (GP) - Free Practice - 11/10/14

By MJP Media | 11 October 2014

It's advantage Turkington as the big showdown gets underway with free practice at Brands Hatch.

Colin Turkington tops the time sheets in free practice

The day dawned with extremely heavy rain at Brands Hatch as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship paddock started work on the title-deciding weekend. As the first free practice session was about to start, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on the cars as they exited pit lane. Mat Jackson was looking to continue his record breaking run of completing every single lap of every race this season - some 486 in total!

Lap times were favouring the Hondas who occupied the top three places in the first few minutes of the first free practice session as the circuit was drying rapidly and the teams were all on a wet set up. As the track started to dry, the title protagonists came to the fore with Jason Plato going quickest in his MG and Colin Turkington in his BMW third, the two split by Andrew Jordan's Honda. Sam Tordoff was then able to produce a quick lap to go second, giving MG a 1-2 at the top of the time sheets with Plato going almost a full second quicker than Turkington. At the halfway stage, Honda Yuasa Racing's Matt Neal was able to put the Civic Tourer into 3rd place. This weekend is the first since 2009 that no Honda driver has the chance to win the title!

Jason Plato is a strong 2nd in both sessions

With 18 minutes of the session remaining, Adam Morgan put his WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class into the gravel on the outside of Druids hairpin however the session continued. Turkington then went quickest ahead of Plato and Tordoff, followed by Gordon Shedden, Neal and Jordan. In the last 10 minutes of the session and with the track continuing to dry, Plato went back to the top of the timing sheets for just 1 minute before Turkington trumped his lap with the pair of them over half a second ahead of 3rd placed Sam Tordoff. With 2 minutes left, the session was halted after it was red flagged when Simon Belcher went off into the gravel next to Adam Morgan, creating a significant danger. At the end of the first session it was advantage Turkington with Plato a close 2nd.

The second free practice session started in the dry and the cars went out on slick tyres from the outset with a few, such as Chris Stockton, testing the soft Dunlop tyre. In the early part of the session, it was Matt Neal over 6 seconds ahead of Alain Menu and Colin Turkington as the teams tried to find a dry setup. After 10 minutes, the shock was Dan Welch in the Proton in second place. Team Chrome Edition Restart Racing then got going with all 4 cars in the top 6 with Alain Menu 2nd and Aron Smith, Jack Goff and Warren Scott in 4th, 5th and 6th. At the mid-way point it was Sam Tordoff in the lead ahead of Andrew Jordan in 2nd and Jack Goff 3rd.

Colin Turkington in his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport

Colin Turkington then took the lead with 15 minutes of the session remaining, going almost a second quicker than anyone else as the dark clouds returned and flashes of lightning were seen. There were then yellow flags in sector 2 which threatened to curb quicker times. The rain returned with 10 minutes to go as Jason Plato went second quickest immediately before the session was red flagged with 9 minutes and 17 seconds to go. The session restarted in the rain, however with times unlikely to come down it was Colin Turkington 1st from Jason Plato in 2nd, Sam Tordoff 3rd and Gordon Shedden in 4th. For the second session in a row it was Turkington quickest head of Plato in second place, proving the superiority of the championship challengers.

As we head towards the all-important qualifying session this afternoon (which you can see live on the ITV player at 3.35pm), it appears that Turkington holds all the aces - the fastest car on circuit and a 50 point lead in the race for the championship. The biggest question now must surely be the unpredictable weather for this afternoon's session and we will bring you the best of the action from that session right here.

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