In the second of the free practice sessions it was Silverline Chevrolet that showed the way for the others as they took the top two fastest times of the session in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship ahead of the qualifying session later today.

It was MacDowall that took the spoils ahead of the two-time champion and team-mate, Jason Plato, with a time of 1:59.025 which was good enough to be fastest of the 26 car field by just 0.038 seconds.

Jason Plato, once again, was the early pace setter and was at the top for much of the session before MacDowall displaced him at the top with the final lap of the session.

James Nash continued his pace from free practice one and finished the session in third just 0.311 seconds off the pace of the Chevrolet’s.

Championship leader, Matt Neal, who is carrying the full ballast for qualifying had to settle for the 4th fastest time just under 0.5s off the pace.

The Global Ford Focus of Tom Chilton had briefly held the top spot in the session early on but subsequently slipped down the order and finished 5th fastest ahead of the Honda of Shedden and Vauxhall of Jordan. Boardman and Jackson followed with debutant Byford setting a fantastic lap just outside the 2 minute barrier to finish just over 1 second off the pace.

Elsewhere O’Neill and James failed to finish the session after problems during the 40 minute outing. James lost a wheel in dramatic fashion during the first lap before O’Neill had to pull off the track with smoke coming out of the front end of the car.

Qualifying starts at 1545GMT with Live commentary via our Twitter account at @BTCCCrazyLive.

For the full session times click here.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.