New team-mates Jason Plato and Colin Turkington were top of the times during the official practice session of the 2015 Dunlop British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park today.
The Team BMR Volkswagen CC partners were separated by just 0.006s after the four-hour session. Plato's lap time of 1min 10.249sec helped him head the 28 cars taking part.
"I am really getting the handling of the car into a good place now," said Plato. "Of all the testing we have done, this has been the best. I don't see any reason why we can't go out at the first race and win."
Behind the two VWs were two Mercedes Benz A-class cars of teenager Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan. They were both 0.05sec adrift. The Triple Eight Racing MG6 GTs of Jack Goff and 2013 champion Andrew Jordan completed the top six.
The factory Honda team of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, driving the new Honda Civic Type-Rs, suffered a tough day. On the car's first competitive outing, Neal was 12th, 0.8sec shy of Plato while he worked through set-up on the car.
"The car is new so we are learning, but it seems very strong in areas," said Neal. Shedden was 18th after his car missed a chunk of track time with a throttle problem.
Matt James
2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship leading test times
1 Jason Plato (Volkswagen CC) 1min 10.249sec
2 Colin Turkington (Volkswagen CC) +0.006sec
3 Aiden Moffat (Mercedes-Benz A-Class) +0.051sec
4 Adam Morgan (Mercedes-Benz A-Class) +0.055sec
5 Jack Goff (MG 6GT) +0.131sec
6 Andrew Jordan (MG 6GT) +0.376sec
7 Hunter Abbott (Audi A4) +0.545sec
8 Warren Scott (Volkswagen CC) +0.580sec
9 Martin Depper (Honda Civic) +0.679sec
10 Sam Tordoff (BMW 125i M Sport) +0.736sec
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