Matt Neal, and joint leader of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, finished the first free practice session at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit with the fastest time of the field.

The two-time British Touring Car Champion set his time half way through the session which was brought to a premature halt with seven minutes remaining. Neal’s time of 1:33.344 was good enough for him to go top ahead of Jason Plato by 0.120 seconds. Up until the final moments of the shortened session the Honda Racing team-mates held the top two positions but Jason Plato left it late to pip Shedden by just 0.020 seconds.

Third fastest was Knockhill race winner, Tom Boardman. The Lancastrians time of 1:33.500 was good enough to beat the Chevrolet Cruze of Alex MacDowall who finished the session in fifth.

Independent Drivers Championship leader, James Nash, was 6th fastest ahead of Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing turbo-powered Vauxhall Vectra. Paul O’Neill set the 8th fastest time ahead of Mat Jackson and Tom Chilton who rounded out the top ten.

Ollie Jackson set the fastest time of the two debutants today. His time of 1:34.573 put him 14th fastest but 1.2 seconds off the pace of Matt Neals session winning time. Chris Swanwick didn’t have such a good time in his first competitive session and ended free practice one down in 28th.

For full classification of the session, click here.
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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.