It was Jason Plato that set the early pace today in the first of the two practice sessions today on the new Snetterton 300 layout. His time of 1:59.797 was good enough to beat Gordon Shedden to the fastest time by 0.126s.

The reigning Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion wasted no time in setting his time and stayed at the top of the timing sheet for much of the session in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze.

The top eight drivers of the session were all separated by under one second with Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden and James Nash the only three drivers to set a time under the two minute barrier.

The current championship leader, Matt Neal, in the second of the turbo powered Honda Civic’s was 4th fastest of the session and just over 0.5s adrift of the pace set by rival Jason Plato.

Chilton and Jordan followed with MacDowall and Newsham the rest of the drivers within one minute of Plato’s time.

Martin Byford, who makes his BTCC debut this weekend, managed to set a time which was worthy of 12th in the session. His time of 2:08.699 was 1.322s off the pace but put him ahead of the likes of Rob Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole.

The second of the debutants this weekend is Dan Welch. After giving us all a scare by not taking to the track the 29-year-old from Aldershot managed to complete 5 laps in the NGTC Proton Gen-2 with no apparent problems to report.

The second of the free practice sessions will get underway at 1225GMT. You can follow all the action via our live twitter account at @BTCCCrazyLive.

To view the full rundown of the times then 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.