Ashley Sutton went fastest in Free Practice 2 at Croft, topping the British Touring Car Championship timesheets for the second time today after doing so in FP1 this morning.
While the laptimes were slightly slower in the afternoon session, with the track still wet with patches of standing water, Sutton once again found himself ahead by four tenths of a second. This time he was directly ahead of the works Honda pairing of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal.
Neal set the pace in the early stages of the session, but had a moment coming out of the Chicane, spinning his car around and mowing through the infield grass.
Jack Goff made it three Civis in the Top 4, while Jason Plato continued to show signs of improvement with the 5th fastest time, following on from being third fastest this morning.
The session also saw a marked improvement from the Triple Eight MGs, with Árón Taylor-Smith edging out team-mate Josh Cook for 7th by under a tenth of a second. The pair were just behind the lead BMW of Andrew Jordan, with the German marque’s oft lauded pace around Croft muted by the wet conditions.
Matt Simpson had been rapid in FP1, but overcooked his entry to Complex, understeering through the left-hander and kissing the barriers with the front-right corner of his Civic. The damage was minor though, and he recovered to set the 13th quickest time in the session.
Simpson and Neal were not the only drivers to fall victim to the inclement weather. Stephen Jelley and Luke Davenport collided at the hairpin, which caused the latter’s Ford Focus to suffer a puncture. Jelley had gone off all on his own earlier in the session at Hawthorn as well, and joining him in some off-road action was Rob Collard, who had a similar albeit more low-key incident to Simpson at the Complex.
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