West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington beat title rival Jason Plato to the fastest time in the first free practice session at Brands Hatch, with the pair duking it out at the top of the standings throughout.

Turkington’s best lap of 1.44.007 was 0.213 faster than Triple Eight’s Plato, with Sam Tordoff in third ahead of the Honda pair of Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden.

Mat Jackson was sixth for local outfit Motorbase Performance, with Jack Goff, Matt Neal, Dave Newsham and Alain Menu completing the top 10.

Rob Collard posted the 14th best time in his rebuilt BMW 125i, spending the early part of the running at the foot of the times as he bedded in the new parts, and also struggled with a misfire.

The session took place under brightening skies on a drying track, after heavy rain overnight and earlier this morning.

And the two title contenders started out as many expected they would, taking turns to top the times throughout.

Plato led the early running just ahead of team-mate Tordoff, before Turkington split the pair halfway through the 40 minutes. The championship leader then jumped to the top of the times, before Plato returned there on his next flying lap.

But the 2009 champion still had time left in the tank, once again pipping Plato in the final ten minutes, and this time holding on to first.

The session finished slightly early when the red flags flew with two minutes to go, after Speedworks Motorsport’s Simon Belcher went off at Druids. Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan, who posted the 18th fastest time, also went off at the same corner earlier in the session.

Only 29 cars appeared during the session, with United Autosports’ James Cole not leaving his garage. The field is already one car smaller than normal, with Rotek Racing withdrawing from the meeting due to damage to their Audi S3.