Tom Ingram topped the times in the opening British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Croft, the Excelr8 Motorsport driver being a tenth and a half ahead of Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden.
Ingram went to the top of the times around the halfway stage of the 40-minute session, putting his Hyundai at the top with a time of 1 minute 21.645 seconds – a tenth of a second below the qualifying lap record for the current generation of cars, and the fastest touring car lap time at the venue since the end of the Super Touring era.
The pace had been set by Toyota’s Rory Butcher just before Ingram hit the top of the times, but the Scot caused a red flag stoppage just before the end of the session when he needed recovering following an electrical fire.
Nonetheless, Butcher ended the session with the third-best time, just under four tenths slower than Ingram.
Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan improved from 11th to fourth in the closing seconds of the session, ending up as the top BMW driver, just under half a second off the pace.
The Lancashire racer was just ahead of the top WSR BMW of Jake Hill in fifth. In fact, the next three cars were all rear-wheel drive as well, with Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat in sixth ahead of the Team BMW cars of Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley in seventh and eighth respectively.
Dan Cammish was ninth, although the NAPA Racing UK driver had actually posted an identical lap time to Jelley.
The top ten was completed by Ciceley’s George Gamble, meaning that six of the eight rear-wheel drive cars on the grid were inside the top ten.
Daniel Rowbottom put his Team Dynamics Honda in 11th, ahead of Daniel Lloyd in 12th in his rebuilt Hyundai i30.
Championship leader Josh Cook was only 14th quickest, eight tenths off the pace, just behind the Ford of reigning champion Ash Sutton.
Carl Boardley, standing in for Rick Parfitt Jr this weekend, failed to post a time. The top 15 cars were covered by under a second.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 |  |
Tom INGRAM | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | 1:21.645 | – |
| 2 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:21.804 | 0.159 |
| 3 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 11 | 1:22.035 | 0.390 |
| 4 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 12 | 1:22.111 | 0.466 |
| 5 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | ROKiT MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 19 | 1:22.118 | 0.473 |
| 6 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 20 | 1:22.223 | 0.578 |
| 7 | 50 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 20 | 1:22.254 | 0.609 |
| 8 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 17 | 1:22.282 | 0.637 |
| 9 | 9 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1:22.282 | 0.637 |
| 10 | 42 | |
George GAMBLE | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 1:22.324 | 0.679 |
| 11 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:22.338 | 0.693 |
| 12 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | 1:22.350 | 0.705 |
| 13 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1:22.356 | 0.711 |
| 14 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 14 | 1:22.477 | 0.832 |
| 15 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:22.575 | 0.930 |
| 16 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 1:22.680 | 1.035 |
| 17 | 97 | |
Ash HAND | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:22.739 | 1.094 |
| 18 | 21 | |
Ricky COLLARD | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 17 | 1:22.842 | 1.197 |
| 19 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 20 | 1:22.870 | 1.225 |
| 20 | 18 | |
James GORNALL | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 1:22.948 | 1.303 |
| 21 | 777 | |
Michael CREES | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 1:22.999 | 1.354 |
| 22 | 19 | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:23.098 | 1.453 |
| 23 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 17 | 1:23.211 | 1.566 |
| 24 | 17 | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 14 | 1:23.274 | 1.629 |
| 25 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 20 | 1:23.644 | 1.999 |
| 26 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:23.852 | 2.207 |
| 27 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:23.913 | 2.268 |
| 28 | 20 | |
Will POWELL | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 13 | 1:25.065 | 3.420 |
| 29 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 0 | No time | N/A |