Darren Turner tops the times in the opening practice session of the BTCC weekend at Snetterton.

After dominating the two-day official test at Snetterton, SEAT came to the fore from the outset in the opening free practice session ahead of the latest rounds of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at the Norfolk circuit.

Darren Turner set the pace during the 40 minute session with a stunning lap of 1min 11.512secs which put the Leon TDi well under the official lap record held by Matt Neal. Turner, who has plenty of experience of the Snetterton circuit from his sportscar exploits ended the session nearly half a second clear of team-mate Jason Plato as the SEAT squad repeated its testing form with a 1-2 on the timesheets.

Gordon Shedden emerged as the leading petrol running in third place for Team Halfords, a tenth of a second behind Plato, with Tom Onslow-Cole fourth in the only Vectra not to hit trouble during the session. Defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi was hit with a fuel gremlin that meant he could complete only three sighter laps and didn't record a time, while Matt Neal managed eight laps before being forced off track and damaging the front of his car - leaving him down in 13th place.

Colin Turkington was fifth quickest for Team RAC from Tom Chilton, while Steven Kane, Adam Jones, Mike Jordan and Rob Collard rounded out the top ten.

Aside from the two troubled Vauxhall men, a notable absentee from the top ten times was Mat Jackson after the BMW Dealer Team UK man went off into the barriers at the high-speed Coram after apparently hitting some oil that was sitting on the circuit. Although he climbed from the car, the session was red-flagged as the BMW was pulled from the tyres and returned to the pits nursing damage down the left-hand side and leaving the team with work to do to effect repairs. Jackson ended up with the 14th quickest time during the session as a result.

22 cars will compete this weekend, with BTC Racing missing from the paddock.