Jake Hill sets the pace in damp opening practice at Snetterton

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill set the pace in the opening British Touring Car Championship practice session of the weekend on a damp circuit at Snetterton.

Hill put his BMW on top of the times from the off in the 45-minute session, and the reigning champion stayed on top throughout, with his fourth lap ending up as the benchmark on 2 minutes 10.420 seconds.

His WSR stable-mate Charles Rainford was second, four tenths of a second back, ahead of the leading NAPA Racing UK car of Dan Cammish in third.

Only two other drivers lapped within a second of the pace on the long Snetterton 300 circuit layout – WSR’s Daryl DeLeon in fourth, and NAPA’s Ash Sutton in fifth, the latter being 0.888 seconds adrift.

Árón Taylor-Smith was the best of the Toyota quartet in sixth, ahead of the third NAPA Ford of Daniel Rowbottom in seventh.

The top ten was completed by One Motorsport’s Josh Cook in eighth, Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram in ninth and WSR’s Aiden Moffat in tenth.

Newcomer Ryan Bensley put his Team Vertu Hyundai in a creditable 20^th out of 25 drivers in his first-ever BTCC session, albeit four seconds off the pace in mixed conditions.

The session began to dry during the 45-minutes, resulting in some drivers switching to hard or soft-compound slicks in the final minutes to scrub them in ahead of second practice and qualifying later in the day.

The session was briefly red-flagged after 15 minutes for six minutes, not related to a car going off circuit or stopping.

Second practice gets underway at 12:20 BST.

First practice result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	8	2:10.420	–
2	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	2:10.829	0.409
3	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	2:11.197	0.777
4	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	16	2:11.241	0.821
5	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	2:11.308	0.888
6	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	2:11.526	1.106
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	2:11.600	1.180
8	66		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	11	2:11.764	1.344
9	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	11	2:12.005	1.585
10	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	2:12.115	1.695
11	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	11	2:12.503	2.083
12	14		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	11	2:12.572	2.152
13	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	2:12.768	2.348
14	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	2:12.889	2.469
15	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	13	2:12.966	2.546
16	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	5	2:13.164	2.744
17	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	2:13.465	3.045
18	12		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	12	2:13.700	3.280
19	132		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	2:13.769	3.349
20	54		Ryan BENSLEY	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	2:14.627	4.207
21	93		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	10	2:14.673	4.253
22	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	10	2:15.619	5.199
23	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	2:15.804	5.384
24	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	11	2:16.017	5.597
25	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	12	2:17.182	6.762