Cook leads BTC Racing 1-2 ahead of Plato in opening Thruxton practice

Josh Cook led a Rich Energy BTC Racing 1-2 ahead of Jason Plato after setting the pace during the opening British Touring Car Championship practice session at Thruxton.

Cook arrives at Thruxton in a rich vein of form after taking a superb double victory last time out at Brands Hatch, and the Honda Civic Type R driver looks in prime position to repeat that after a promising start in FP1.

With Plato hitting the ground running early in the 40-minute session, Cook went 0.1s quicker than the two-time champion after setting a 1'15.462s lap, already within 0.2s of Dan Cammish's pole position lap record.

Plato retained his position in P2, despite having a brief off-track excursion on the exit of Allard corner. The 97-time race winner led the top BMW effort of Jake Hill in third position, with reigning champion Ash Sutton ending the session in fourth, albeit almost 0.5s off the pace.

Team BMW's Colin Turkington was fifth quickest aboard his West Surrey Racing prepared BMW 330e M Sport machine to split the two NAPA Racing Fords with Dan Cammish trailing the four-time champion in sixth position.

Championship leader Tom Ingram produced a quiet start to the weekend by his usual time-topping standards after posting a time good enough for seventh ahead of BMW runner Adam Morgan in eighth.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher and Team BMW's Stephen Jelley completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth.