Triple Eight’s Jason Plato set the fastest time in the first free practice of the season at Brands Hatch, with a time already inside the pole position lap from last year.

Plato set his best lap with 17 minutes remaining in his MG6, following a 15-minute delay when one of the West Surrey Racing mechanics took a fall in the pit lane, requiring medical attention.

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington was second in his BMW 125i, 0.176 behind Plato, with reigning champion Andrew Jordan third in the Eurotech Racing Honda Civic.

Matt Neal was the best of the new Honda Civic Tourers in fourth, ahead of Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class. The top 10 was completed by Aron Smith, Rob Collard, Sam Tordoff, Gordon Shedden and the returning Alain Menu.

Plato’s best time was 0.033 inside Andrew Jordan’s pole time from 2013, although his lap was set in near-freezing conditions, rather than the warm conditions of today.

The top 22 cars were all within one second of him, down to Jordan’s team-mate Martin Depper in the second Honda Civic hatchback.

Fabrizio Giovanardi could only manage the 16th best time in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, while Triple Eight’s Marc Hynes was the only recipient of a track limit warning en route to the 18th best time.

There were issues during the session for Chris Stockton, who only completed six laps in his BTC Racing Chevrolet Cruze after slowing out on circuit.

Ollie Jackson’s Welch Motorsport Proton Gen-2 failed a noise test, so was refused permission to take part. His team-mate Dan Welch is not racing this weekend, as his car is not finished.

The second free practice gets under way at 12:40 GMT.