BTCC Brands Hatch testing

This year's British Touring Car Championship could be a closer fought battle than many have been predicting. With SEAT leaving the competition at the end of the 2008 season, Vauxhall's VX Racing has been left as the only official manufacturer team.

Reigning champ Fabrizio Giovanardi is expected by many to take them to another title, and indeed he has set the standard at pre-season testing at Brands Hatch, where the BTCC season opens on April 5. As well as setting the quickest lap of the day – 48.836sec – he has broken the previous BTCC lap record of the track (set by Yvan Muller in an Astra eight years ago) by over a tenth of a second.

However there has been close competition courtesy of the new Airwaves team. Newcomer Jonathan Adam took his BMW 320si round Brands Hatch in 48.936sec to also beat Muller’s past best, while teammate Robert Collard was incredibly close with a best of 48.939sec to complete the top three.

Also off to a promising start, and campaigning the BMW 320si, is Team RAC. Colin Turkington led initial testing last week at Rockingham, and was eighth after testing at Brands. His teammate Stephen Jelley managed sixth, trumping VX Racing’s Andrew Jordan.

Check the full list of times from the Brands session on March 24 below. You can also look forward to a full season preview here courtesy of one of the sport’s biggest names. Keep your eyes on evo.co.uk this week to find out who…

BTCC official pre-season test, overall times, Brands Hatch:

1. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, 48.836s2. Jonathan Adam (GBR), Airwaves BMW/BMW 320si E90, 48.936s3. Robert Collard (GBR), Airwaves BMW/BMW 320si E90, 48.939s4. Matt Neal (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, 49.023s5. Gordon Shedden (GBR), Team Dynamics/Honda Civic, 49.053s6. Stephen Jelley (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si E90, 49.142s7. Andrew Jordan (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, 9.169s8. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si E90, 49.213s9. Harry Vaulkhard (GBR), Tempus Sport/Chevrolet Lacetti, 49.584s10. David Pinkney (GBR), Team Dynamics/Honda Civic, 49.592s11. John George (GBR), TH Motorsport Racing with JAG/Honda Integra, 49.935s12. Tom Chilton (GBR), Team Aon/Ford Focus ST, 49.975s13. Martyn Bell (GBR), Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motorsport/Honda Integra, 50.117s14. Liam McMillan (GBR), Maxtreme/SEAT Toledo, 50.372s15. Martin Johnson (GBR), Boulevard Team Racing/Vauxhall Astra Coupe, 50.459s

Win a pair of tickets to round two of the BTCC calendar at Thruxton.