Bobby Thompson lights up the timesheets in second practice

British Touring Car Championship returnee Bobby Thompson surged to the top of the times in the second free practice session at Snetterton, cementing his encouraging pace from earlier in the day.

Thompson was almost four tenths of a second quicker than NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish in the final practice session, having gone to the top of the times on three occasions in FP2, ending up with a lap of 2 minutes 10.375 seconds.

Although the BMW driver’s lap pace was down on the ultimate pace of the opening session, he was still four tenths faster than he had gone in the morning to top the session.

FP1 pace-setter Jake Hill was third quickest in his WSR-run BMW, just over four tenths shy of his new team-mate, with NAPA’s reigning champion Ash Sutton in fourth.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington in fifth was the only other driver within a second of the pace at a continually damp, but improving, Snetterton circuit.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble put in a strong effort to go sixth in his Vauxhall Astra, ahead of the leading Toyota of Rob Huff, contesting his home race for the first time in 20 years, in seventh.

NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom was eighth, with the top ten being completed by the leading EXCELR8 Hyundai of Ronan Pearson and the second PMR Vauxhall of Árón Taylor-Smith.

Tom Ingram was 11^th in his Hyundai, just under a second and a half off the pace.

FP2 decides the grouping for the first part of qualifying based on even-and-odd rankings, thus leaving all BMWs bar 12^th-placed Adam Morgan in the same group.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 15:30 BST and will be streamed live online via ITV Sport on YouTube.

Session result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Zeus Cloud Racing with WSR	BMW 330e M Sport	13	2:10.375	–
2	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	2:10.757	0.382
3	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	12	2:10.792	0.417
4	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	2:10.868	0.493
5	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	13	2:11.186	0.811
6	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	14	2:11.459	1.084
7	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	2:11.735	1.360
8	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	2:11.749	1.374
9	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	13	2:11.799	1.424
10	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	2:11.813	1.438
11	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	11	2:11.871	1.496
12	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	13	2:11.906	1.531
13	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	2:11.982	1.607
14	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	13	2:12.697	2.322
15	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	7	2:12.827	2.452
16	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	10	2:12.996	2.621
17	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	11	2:13.079	2.704
18	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	13	2:14.406	4.031
19	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	13	2:14.836	4.461
20	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	2:15.177	4.802
21	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	2:15.836	5.461