Vauxhall Motorsport’s James Thompson pipped his team mate Yvan Muller by just 4/100ths of a second to head the time sheets at the end of the second official MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) test at Brands Hatch today.

The day kicked off with the 2002 BTCC Media Launch, where the title sponsor of the championship, Green Flag, was officially revealed in addition to the announcement that Vicki Butler-Henderson and Ben Edwards are to present this year’s Granada Sport’s package.

Vauxhall headed the times for the majority of the day with Muller posting a 1:33.476 at the end of the morning session. Thompson subsequently retaliated towards the end of the day with an impressive 1:33.126, laying down the gauntlet before the first rounds at Brands in ten days times.

Thompson said: “It was a very constructive day; we have improved a few things on the car with regards to the set up which, in turn, has improved the lap times and competitiveness of the Vauxhall Astra Coupé. I am very pleased with the overall result.”

Third quickest was Matt Neal for Egg Sport, with youngster Tom Chilton sensationally fourth quickest for Barwell Motorsport on his first visit to the Grand Prix track. Just 3/100ths of a second shy of Chilton was Warren Hughes for MG Sport & Racing. Hughes undertook the majority of the testing work for the team today as team mate Anthony Reid only took delivery of his race car on the morning of the test.

Team Petronas Syntium Proton (PSP) driver David Leslie was delighted to end the day sixth quickest – and equally pleased with his performance was former Superbike Champion Aaron Slight, who finished seventh quickest despite a heavy off towards the end of the day.

Tim Harvey, for the newly-announced Team Halfords outfit, was eighth quickest from Paul O’Neill, Egg Sport, in ninth. Tenth quickest was Phil Bennett for Team PSP.

Rounding out the Touring grid were Andy Priaulx for Honda Racing and Anthony Reid for MG Sport & Racing, both of whom only ran in one session.

Tech-speed’s Mark Fullalove yet again set the pace for the Production title chasing pack, clocking a time of 1:38.825, closely followed by Edenbridge Racing’s Jamie Davies with a 1:39.067. Fellow Edenbridge driver Tom Boardman set the third fastest time of the day proving that the Tonbridge-based outfit will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Mark Thomas for Beacon Motorsport and Alan Blencowe for Gary Ayles Motorsport were split by under two tenths of a second in fourth and fifth places respectively. Closer still were Graham Saunders (GA Motorsport) and Spencer Marsh (Beacon Motorsport) who ran to within 1/100th of a second of each other, ahead of Annie Templeton for Tech-speed Motorsport and John B&Q for his new outfit Team B&Q Jet York City.

With official testing now over, the real work begins and all runners go head-to-head for the first time at Brands Hatch over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend (30th March – 1st April). If pre-season testing is anything to go by, it should be a storming opener to the 2002 Green Flag British Touring Car Championship season.