Andrew Jordan put his Pirtek BMW on top of the times in the first practice session for the British Touring Car Championship at Croft, with a late lap edging out the Subaru of Ash Sutton by less than a tenth of a second.
Rear-wheel drive cars led the way throughout the 40-minute opening session, with the times initially topped by BMW’s Croft master Colin Turkington, with a lap of 1 minute 22.875 seconds before the reigning champion improved to a 1:22.303.
With just over ten minutes to go, Sutton put his BMR Subaru in P1 with a lap of 1:22.128, before Jordan pipped him in the closing minutes.
Sutton marginally improved his time by 0.004 seconds to finish within a tenth of Jordan, whilst AmD Tuning’s Sam Tordoff was the best front-wheel drive competitor in third with an identical time to Sutton, having been around the top of the timesheets throughout.
Turkington improved his time but ended up in fourth, just over two tenths adrift, ahead of WSR team-mate Tom Oliphant in fifth, meaning that five of the top six cars were rear-wheel drive.
Joint championship leader Rory Butcher was sixth in the second of the AmD Hondas, ahead of Honda’s Matt Neal in seventh in the newer Civic FK8.
BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley was eighth, just over half a second off the pace, ahead of the Toyota of Tom Ingram in ninth and the second factory-backed Honda of Dan Cammish in tenth.
Senna Proctor was outside the top ten for all of the session, but the Subaru driver improved towards the end and was 11th.
The top 18 drivers were covered by less than a second, whilst 29 of the 30 cars took to the circuit to post a time, the only driver missing out being Exceler8 Motorsport’s Rob Smith, who remained in the team’s awning with the bonnet up on his MG.
There were no noteworthy incidents other than the usual batch of drivers being warned for track limits exceedances, including Ingram, Michael Crees and Jack Goff.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:00 BST, followed by qualifying at 15:05 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN |  |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 1:22.039 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 17 | 1:22.124 | 0.085 |
| 3 | 600 | Sam TORDOFF | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:22.124 | 0.085 |
| 4 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 1:22.270 | 0.231 |
| 5 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 21 | 1:22.322 | 0.283 |
| 6 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:22.396 | 0.357 |
| 7 | 25 | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:22.515 | 0.476 |
| 8 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 1:22.554 | 0.515 |
| 9 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 16 | 1:22.630 | 0.591 |
| 10 | 27 | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:22.634 | 0.595 |
| 11 | 18 | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 17 | 1:22.648 | 0.609 |
| 12 | 12 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 19 | 1:22.757 | 0.718 |
| 13 | 9 | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:22.787 | 0.748 |
| 14 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 17 | 1:22.857 | 0.818 |
| 15 | 11 | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 1:22.898 | 0.859 |
| 16 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 14 | 1:22.932 | 0.893 |
| 17 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 17 | 1:22.982 | 0.943 |
| 18 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 15 | 1:23.020 | 0.981 |
| 19 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 1:23.048 | 1.009 |
| 20 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 17 | 1:23.156 | 1.117 |
| 21 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:23.171 | 1.132 |
| 22 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 1:23.208 | 1.169 |
| 23 | 32 | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 1:23.280 | 1.241 |
| 24 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 17 | 1:23.291 | 1.252 |
| 25 | 28 | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 20 | 1:23.426 | 1.387 |
| 26 | 777 | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 17 | 1:23.529 | 1.490 |
| 27 | 8 | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 15 | 1:23.940 | 1.901 |
| 28 | 41 | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 11 | 1:24.048 | 2.009 |
| 29 | 4 | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 18 | 1:24.328 | 2.289 |
| 30 | 37 | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 0 | No time | N/A |