AmD Tuning’s Rory Butcher topped the opening British Touring Car Championship practice at Knockhill by nearly a quarter-of-a-second from fellow home racer Aiden Moffat.
The two-time BTCC winner was at the sharp end for the majority of the chilly 40-minute session, and set the benchmark as the only runner to dip under the 51-second mark with his time of 50.857s.
Fellow Scot Moffat got the closest to Butcher’s time in his revised Infiniti Q50, while Stephen Jelley’s older BMW 125i M Sport was third.
Andrew Jordan was next in the new-for-2019 BMW 3 Series, the 2013 champion just head of Mike Bushell in the other AmD Tuning Honda, standing in for Sam Tordoff the latter announced the tragic passing of his newborn son earlier this week.
Team BMR’s Senna Proctor enjoyed a strong session to place sixth, with Josh Cook the best of the FK8 Honda Civics just a thousandth-of-a-second behind.
Dan Cammish, who enjoyed his best-ever BTCC weekend last time out at Thruxton, finished the session eighth ahead of 2018 champion Ash Sutton in the second of the Subarus.
A strong session for AmD saw Jake Hill complete the top ten ahead of Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton, who won the final race at Knockhill last year.
Standings leader Colin Turkington was 13th ahead of triple champion Matt Neal, while Tom Oliphant rounded out the top 15 runners.
The session ran mostly green for the majority, despite a brief yellow flag period at Clark after a spin for Team HARD’s Michael Crees in his Volkswagen CC.
The second British Touring Car Championship practice session is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 for another 40-minute session.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER |  |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 28 | 50.857 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 33 | 51.103 | 0.246 |
| 3 | 12 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 29 | 51.141 | 0.284 |
| 4 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 29 | 51.162 | 0.305 |
| 5 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 33 | 51.212 | 0.355 |
| 6 | 18 | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 30 | 51.229 | 0.372 |
| 7 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 30 | 51.230 | 0.373 |
| 8 | 27 | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 23 | 51.252 | 0.395 |
| 9 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 28 | 51.305 | 0.448 |
| 10 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 31 | 51.321 | 0.464 |
| 11 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 27 | 51.328 | 0.471 |
| 12 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 27 | 51.357 | 0.500 |
| 13 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 28 | 51.386 | 0.529 |
| 14 | 25 | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 51.421 | 0.564 |
| 15 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 23 | 51.446 | 0.589 |
| 16 | 11 | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 20 | 51.484 | 0.627 |
| 17 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 29 | 51.613 | 0.756 |
| 18 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 27 | 51.652 | 0.795 |
| 19 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 26 | 51.702 | 0.845 |
| 20 | 8 | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 33 | 51.735 | 0.878 |
| 21 | 9 | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 25 | 51.770 | 0.913 |
| 22 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 24 | 51.790 | 0.933 |
| 23 | 777 | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 23 | 51.849 | 0.992 |
| 24 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 51.910 | 1.053 |
| 25 | 32 | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 28 | 51.967 | 1.110 |
| 26 | 28 | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 33 | 52.391 | 1.534 |
| 27 | 4 | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 35 | 52.770 | 1.913 |
| 28 | 37 | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 36 | 52.796 | 1.939 |
| 29 | 41 | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 6 | 53.819 | 2.962 |
| 30 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 7 | 57.823 | 6.966 |