SEAN Walkinshaw could not hide his delight at a productive first test ahead of the inaugural TCR UK Championship.

The Chipping Norton-based Honda Civic Type-R outfit set the second fastest time overall, just 0.038 seconds off the top of the timesheets, at Silverstone.

Team owner Walkinshaw, who took on the driving duties, was thrilled with the progress made ahead of the season opener at the Northamptonshire circuit on April 1.

He said: “It was a very, very productive day.

“This was our first time out this year, so it was a case of getting everyone back into the swing of things.

“It was also our first time using Yokohama tyres, so we’ve been able to get some really useful data which should help us enormously for the first round.”

Walkinshaw set the second fastest lap in a wet first session.

With the track drying out, he then went on to top the timesheets.

Walkinshaw then just missed out on setting the fastest lap of the day in the fourth and final session, ending the first test second overall.