2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship contenders hit the front during free practice two at Brands Hatch as Colin Turkington topped team-mate Jason Plato and Honda Yuasa Racing's Gordon Shedden.
Reigning champion Turkington led the way for much of the running and improved his own benchmark shortly after mid-distance – his 1.31.302s lap time falling just a tenth shy of Jason Plato's qualifying lap record from 2013.
Plato and Shedden could barely be separated during qualifying – as has been the case for much of the season – with the Team BMR RCIB Insurance driver getting the upper hand this time by just 0.001s. Shedden's Honda Civic Type R still looked to be in fine form as the Scotsman aborted at least one other flying lap, which was set to be on a similar pace.
Team IHG Rewards Club star Andy Priaulx clocked the fourth fastest time ahead of Jack Goff's MG. Both drivers enjoyed their experience driving on the Indy circuit at the start of the 2015 season, with Priaulx's BMW taking pole position while Goff took his first podium of the campaign, and it seems the Grand Prix layout is also to their liking.
Andrew Jordan was just 0.052s behind his MG Triple Eight Racing team-mate, whilst Tom Ingram's Speedworks Toyota pipped Mat Jackson's Motorbase Ford to seventh.
Honda's Matt Neal took ninth ahead of series returnee Alain Menu, who completed the top ten order. The Swiss superstar is taking part in his first BTCC race weekend of the season, due to the back injury sustained at Silverstone by regular racer Warren Scott. Despite missing FP1 with a power steering problem the double BTCC champion dusted off the cobwebs in record time, as he pushed his VW inside the top ten. While Menu will be hoping to get his own good results this weekend he has also admitted that he'll be on hand to help his Team BMR RCIB Insurance team-mates where possible. With Plato and Turkington looking to close in on championship leader Shedden, Menu could play an important role during the weekend.
The final and arguably most important qualifying session of the 2015 BTCC season takes places at 15:40 later today and will be streamed live and exclusively via www.itv.com/btcc.
2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship - Brands Hatch GP - Free Practice 2 Classification:
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMR RCIB Insurance
2 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Honda Yuasa Racing
3 Jason PLATO (GBR) Team BMR RCIB Insurance
4 Andy PRIAULX (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club
5 Jack GOFF (GBR) MG 888 Racing
6 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) MG 888 Racing
7 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport
8 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance
9 Matt NEAL (GBR) Honda Yuasa Racing
10 Alain MENU (SUI) Team BMR RCIB Insurance
11 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) Power Maxed Racing
12 Aron SMITH (IRL) Team BMR RCIB Insurance
13 Mike BUSHELL (R) (GBR) AmD Tuning.com
14 Robert COLLARD (GBR) JCT600 Racing with GardX
15 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing
16 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Eurotech Racing
17 Josh COOK (R) (GBR) Power Maxed Racing
18 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) JCT600 Racing with GardX
19 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing
20 James COLE (GBR) Motorbase Performance
21 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing
22 Tony GILHAM (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing
23 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Exocet AlcoSense
24 Jake HILL (GBR) AmD Tuning.com
25 Alex MARTIN (R) (GBR) Dextra Racing
26 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Exocet AlcoSense
27 Simon BELCHER (GBR) Handy Motorsport
28 Stewart LINES (R) (GBR) Houseman Racing
29 Derek PALMER (R) (GBR) Support Our Paras Racing
30 Daniel WELCH (GBR) Welch Motorsport
