Tom Ingram set a fastest time of 51.955 seconds to claim the honours in the second free practice session ahead of this weekends British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Knockhill, and in doing so became the first man to dip beneath the 52-second barrier all weekend.
Close behind was the Mercedes A-Class of Adam Morgan, a mere 0.228 seconds adrift of the Toyota Avensis, whilst Jack Goff completed the top three, in a field that saw the top 26 covered by a single second.
The rest of the top five had an unfamiliar look as Hunter Abbott continued his recent surge in form to clock the fourth fastest time in his recently rebuilt Chevrolet Cruze, some 0.289 seconds behind Ingram, whilst Jeff Smith repeated his Knockhill heroics of seasons past to place his Eurotech Racing Type-R in fifth.
Free practice one pace-setter Jason Plato came next ahead of Sam Tordoff, the man currently lying second in the championship, with the double champion insisting before the session that he still had work to do on the balance of the Subaru Levorg GT before qualifying at 15:50 this afternoon.
Arguably the story of the day so far has been the relative lack of pace for Halfords Yuasa Racing, with Matt Neal complaining of poor speed trap results prior to the second practice session. Over a number of runs both he and local hero Gordon Shedden clocked 49 laps in total, but Shedden could only manage 8th on the timesheets, and Neal 17th.
Elsewhere, championship leader Rob Collard managed just 10th in the BMW 125i M-Sport, behind the partially rebuilt Ford Focus ST of Andrew Jordan, both around three tenths of a second adrift of Ingram.
The red flags had to be called for a third time today as Daniel Welch stopped at the hairpin and required marshal assistance, whilst Warren Scott’s Levorg GT also stopped out at Taylors. Both are expected to run this afternoon.
With all the cars running their correct weights and looking for optimum qualifying performance, this is the closest indicator we have had so far today as to the destiny of pole position, which will be decided during qualifying at 15:50.
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 | Tom INGRAM |  |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 23 | 51.955 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 28 | 52.183 | 0.228 | |
| 3 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 31 | 52.230 | 0.275 |
| 4 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 28 | 52.244 | 0.289 | |
| 5 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 52.260 | 0.305 | |
| 6 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 24 | 52.289 | 0.334 |
| 7 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 28 | 52.294 | 0.339 |
| 8 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 23 | 52.300 | 0.345 |
| 9 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 28 | 52.312 | 0.357 | |
| 10 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 29 | 52.315 | 0.360 |
| 11 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 52.317 | 0.362 | |
| 12 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 26 | 52.323 | 0.368 |
| 13 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 28 | 52.331 | 0.376 | |
| 14 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 27 | 52.336 | 0.381 | |
| 15 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 27 | 52.368 | 0.413 | |
| 16 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 35 | 52.473 | 0.518 |
| 17 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 26 | 52.526 | 0.571 |
| 18 | 71 | David NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 26 | 52.572 | 0.617 | |
| 19 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 27 | 52.608 | 0.653 | |
| 20 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 22 | 52.618 | 0.663 |
| 21 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 26 | 52.727 | 0.772 | |
| 22 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 26 | 52.733 | 0.778 |
| 23 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 29 | 52.756 | 0.801 | |
| 24 | 88 | Michael CAINE | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 19 | 52.918 | 0.963 | |
| 25 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 24 | 52.991 | 1.036 |
| 26 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 52.992 | 1.037 | |
| 27 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 25 | 53.089 | 1.134 | |
| 28 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 15 | 53.510 | 1.555 | |
| 29 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 28 | 53.511 | 1.556 | |
| 30 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 29 | 53.671 | 1.716 | |
| 31 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 29 | 53.732 | 1.777 |