Tordoff ends Brands Hatch test on top

Sam Tordoff has marked his first official outing in Honda machinery in triumphant style after topping the British Touring Car Championship pre-season test at Brands Hatch for the AmD squad.

Embarking on his first campaign with the AmD Tuning outfit after making the switch from Motorbase Performance for 2019, Tordoff set the pace during the both sessions and dipped below Tom Ingram's qualifying lap record from 2016 in the afternoon session after setting a 47.927s lap around the Indy layout.

Whilst BMW Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan proved to be Tordoff's nearest contender during the morning session, it was Tom Chilton who ended the day as his former team mate's closest challenger after setting the second quickest time later on in the day.

Dan Cammish, entering his second BTCC campaign following a superb double win at last season's finale, completed the top-three order for the factory Honda squad after marginally demoting Jordan in the afternoon session.

Despite falling down the classification following the morning session, Jordan still emerged from the pre-season test as the fastest BMW runner in fourth on what proved to be a promising maiden voyage for the West Surrey Racing built BMW 330i M Sport.

Jordan was followed by the second AmD Honda Civic Type R of Rory Butcher in fifth, while Team Toyota GB's Tom Ingram was another driver to enjoy a strong start in new machinery after last year's runner-up posted the sixth fastest time aboard his Toyota Corolla.

Although neither managed to improve on their times from the morning running, defending champion Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley ended the final classification in seventh and eighth, ahead of Honda's Matt Neal and the Audi S3 of Jake Hill in ninth and tenth.

Elsewhere, Team BMW's newest recruit Tom Oliphant was 12th fastest for the WSR squad, providing further vital mileage for the brand new 3 Series.

Jason Plato continued to settle himself in new surroundings with Power Maxed Racing as the former two-time champion managed to lower his benchmark from the morning to afternoon by almost 0.5s aboard his Vauxhall Astra.