Aiden Moffat set the pace in opening practice as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Croft circuit in North Yorkshire.
Moffat left it late to make his move to the top of the times, his lap of 1m25.038s enough to take initial bragging rights for Mercedes ahead of 2013 champion, Andrew Jordan.
The Motorbase Performance driver – who clinched his first BTCC win at this very circuit – topped the times with a 1m25.064s effort in the first half of the 40-minute session. The Ford man was forced to settle for second spot however, the top six covered by less than two tenths.
Championship leader Sam Tordoff also looked rapid in his platinum-liveried West Surrey Racing BMW 125i, finishing third overall with 75kg success ballast on board.
Early pace-setter Tom Ingram was next up for Speedworks Motorsport ahead of Adam Morgan‘s Mercedes, Colin Turkington next up in the Silverline Subaru BMR Racing Levorg.
Gordon Shedden (Honda), Aron Smith (Volswagen) and the Eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type-R duo of Martin Depper and Daniel Lloyd rounded out the top 10.
Looking for his first win of the season, Jason Plato ended first practice 12th for Subaru ahead of Matt Neal, who enters the Croft meeting a point adrift of Tordoff in the Drivers’ Championship.
Chris Smiley‘s session ended prematurely as he parked his Toyota Avensis by the side of the track at the Jim Clark Esses, while James Cole recovered from a spin at Clervaux in his Subaru Levorg.
Second practice gets underway at 12:00, and you can keep up with all the action right here and via@TheCheckerFlag on Twitter.
