Sam Tordoff topped the timesheets in the morning session at the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship's official Season Launch Test Day at Brands Hatch, with the brand new BMW 3 Series' of Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington in close company.
The hours spent today around the Indy Circuit mark the first collective outing for the 2019 BTCC field, and, as always with testing, lap times should be taken with a pinch of salt as teams work through demanding, varying programmes. Set-up, and bedding in new drivers and machinery is often the priority, with over 1000 tours completed between the 30-strong capacity field.
Tordoff made the switch to Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance over the off-season, and the squad's newly-acquired Honda Civic Type R (FK2) set the early benchmark, staying top of the pile come the chequered flag. As an indicator, his time sits just a hundredth from Tom Ingram's 2016 lap record.
West Surrey Racing took the covers off its new trio of BMW 330i M Sports on Tuesday morning, after a breathless winter spent putting the freshly-minted cars together in BTCC trim. Encouragingly for the BMW factory stable, all three of its drivers resided in the top ten, with Jordan and Turkington 0.076s and 0.120s shy of Tordoff's benchmark respectively and Oliphant rounding in eighth spot.
Stephen Jelley returns to Team Parker Racing for a third consecutive season and is hopeful that having the same engineers around him once again will yield positive results. He popped up fourth in the BMW 125i M Sport.
The sister AmD Civic of Rory Butcher placed fifth, marking a good start for Shaun Hollamby's stable, while Halfords Yuasa Racing's BTCC legend, Matt Neal, rounded out the top six.
The afternoon will see a further three-hour session, which can be followed via live timing over at btcc.net/live.
2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Season Launch Test Day – Brands Hatch Indy
1 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance 48.087s
2 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +0.076s
3 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.120s
4 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker Racing +0.132s
5 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance +0.146s
6 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.184s
7 Dan CAMMISH (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.209s
8 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +0.260s
9 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Racing +0.269s
10 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +0.328s
11 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.346s
12 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.363s
13 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +0.442s
14 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport +0.565s
15 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Team Toyota GB with Ginsters +0.569s
16 Jack GOFF (GBR) RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport +0.578s
17 Jake HILL (GBR) TradePriceCars.com +0.582s
18 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport +0.626s
19 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with Motorbase +0.664s
20 Rob SMITH (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +0.796s
21 Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct +0.836s
22 Jason PLATO (GBR) Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing +0.866s
23 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +0.960s
24 Mark BLUNDELL (GBR) TradePriceCars.com +0.962s
25 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing +0.1.058s
26 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.064s
27 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.206s
28 Michael CREES (GBR) GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct +1.527s
29 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +1.808s
- Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport NO TRANSPONDER
