Dan Cammish went fastest in the second and final British Touring Car Championship practice session at Thruxton, which was red-flagged at two-thirds distance after Rory Butcher went off in the second sector.
A best time of 1:16.459 set before the stoppage proved enough for Cammish and the Honda Civic Type R FK8, edging out FP1 pace-setter Colin Turkington’s BMW 1-series by a mere 0.061 seconds.
Honda are expecting an even better turn of form this weekend, with aerodynamic performance and cornering speed vital to success at the 2.4 mile Hampshire speedbowl, rather than straight-line speed.
Senna Proctor continued to highlight Power Maxed Racing’s early pace this weekend in third, with Mike Bushell also translating a decent showing at last month’s official test to put the Team.HARD-run Volkswagen CC fourth.
Matt Neal came next in the sister Team Dynamics machine, with current championship leader Tom Ingram an impressive sixth despite carrying the full quota of 75 kilos of success ballast on board his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.
Andrew Jordan posted a late effort to end the session seventh, though the third works BMW of Rob Collard struggled at his local circuit and was only 17th.
Jack Goff spearheaded the Eurotech Racing charge in eighth ahead of Matt Simpson, who got out of shape at the final chicane and was forced to take evasive action over the grass.
Brett Smith made it three in a line for the Midlands-based outfit in tenth, with the second Vauxhall Astra of Donington Park race-winner Josh Cook 0.032 seconds further back.
Jake Hill came next ahead of Rob Austin’s Alfa Romeo Guilietta and the leading Mercedes A-Class of Adam Morgan.
Sam Tordoff rounds out the top fifteen as the highest-placed Motorbase Performance machine.
Impressively, the entire top 20 was covered by just over a single second, with reigning champion Ash Sutton 1.025s behind in 20th.
The third qualifying session of the 2018 campaign is scheduled to get underway at 15:25 this afternoon.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 27 | Dan CAMMISH |  |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:16.459 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 2 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 19 | 1:16.520 | 0.061 |
| 3 | 18 | Senna PROCTOR | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 19 | 1:16.541 | 0.082 |
| 4 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 1:16.660 | 0.201 |
| 5 | 25 | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 21 | 1:16.762 | 0.303 |
| 6 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:16.883 | 0.424 |
| 7 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 1:16.893 | 0.434 |
| 8 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 1:16.930 | 0.471 |
| 9 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:17.025 | 0.566 |
| 10 | 39 | Brett SMITH | |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 11 | 1:17.138 | 0.679 |
| 11 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:17.170 | 0.711 |
| 12 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 14 | 1:17.203 | 0.744 |
| 13 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 10 | 1:17.242 | 0.783 |
| 14 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 15 | 1:17.251 | 0.792 |
| 15 | 600 | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team GardX Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 18 | 1:17.305 | 0.846 |
| 16 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 17 | 1:17.328 | 0.869 |
| 17 | 5 | Rob COLLARD | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 1:17.332 | 0.873 |
| 18 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 21 | 1:17.358 | 0.899 |
| 19 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 19 | 1:17.359 | 0.900 |
| 20 | 1 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 20 | 1:17.484 | 1.025 |
| 21 | 99 | Jason PLATO | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 15 | 1:17.485 | 1.026 |
| 22 | 20 | James COLE | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 11 | 1:17.735 | 1.276 |
| 23 | 12 | Tom BOARDMAN | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG 6 | 15 | 1:17.815 | 1.356 |
| 24 | 28 | Josh PRICE | |
Autoglym Academy Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 16 | 1:17.894 | 1.435 |
| 25 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 21 | 1:17.901 | 1.442 |
| 26 | 60 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 21 | 1:17.917 | 1.458 |
| 27 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 15 | 1:17.968 | 1.509 |
| 28 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 10 | 1:17.985 | 1.526 |
| 29 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG 6 | 10 | 1:18.083 | 1.624 |
| 30 | 14 | James NASH | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 1:18.111 | 1.652 |
| 31 | 23 | Sam SMELT | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 20 | 1:18.455 | 1.996 |
| 32 | 44 | Michael CAINE | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 0 | No time |