Chris Smiley heads ever-faster second practice times

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was the fastest driver in the second British Touring Car Championship practice session on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, ahead of Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan.

Smiley went quickest with just under ten minutes of the session remaining, the Northern Irishman’s lap time being 0.61 seconds faster than the pace had been in the earlier session, which itself was below the qualifying lap record.

Morgan, who had earlier been fourth in first practice, was this time second quickest, once again leading the EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai charge, albeit as the second-fastest i30 driver overall after Smiley.

Aiden Moffat was this time the leading WSR BMW driver in third, the Scot being under a tenth of a second slower than Smiley.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was an impressive fourth, ahead of Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram in fifth.

First practice pace-setter Charles Rainford was sixth, ahead of the second Restart Hyundai of Daniel Lloyd in seventh.

The top ten was completed by Team Vertu duo Michael Crees and Tom Chilton, and the leading Toyota of James Dorlin in tenth.

The best of the NAPA Racing UK drivers was Ash Sutton in 11^th, just over half a second off the pace, albeit with the four-time champion having just one second of turbo boost available to him in qualifying due to leading the championship standings heading into the weekend.

WSR’s Daryl DeLeon was 12^th, ahead of NAPA duo Daniel Rowbottom and Dan Cammish in 13^th and 14^th respectively.

After going off at Druids in first practice and missing much of the session, Toyota’s Gordon Shedden was just 20^th in second practice, whilst Árón Taylor-Smith was only 24^th due to a gearbox change on his car.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:10 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	28	46.725	–
2	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	20	46.816	0.091
3	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	26	46.819	0.094
4	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	46.880	0.155
5	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	46.888	0.163
6	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	27	46.958	0.233
7	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	31	46.997	0.272
8	777		Michael CREES	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	31	47.009	0.284
9	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	27	47.030	0.305
10	132		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	47.237	0.512
11	100		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	25	47.248	0.523
12	14		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	47.280	0.555
13	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	31	47.317	0.592
14	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	33	47.365	0.640
15	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	30	47.448	0.723
16	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	25	47.455	0.730
17	93		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	26	47.483	0.758
18	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	16	47.487	0.762
19	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	47.538	0.813
20	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	47.596	0.871
21	66		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	21	47.647	0.922
22	12		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	30	47.762	1.037
23	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	18	48.312	1.587
24	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	4	48.364	1.639
25	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	22	49.610	2.885