I stayed at a Premier Inn in Southampton (city centre) the night before my stage 1 tests. Only £29 and took about 20 minutes (at 8am) to drive over to the Technical centre.
The maths part of stage 1 looks quite complex, but you'll normally find it can be simplified into something more easy to work with. I'd suggest practicing with fractions of hours, multiples of 6/10/12/15. Also, ensure your working in the correct units, for example question may ask how far you travel in 10 minutes, if your going 300mph.