Daniel Rowbottom leads NAPA Racing 1-2-3 in first practice

Daniel Rowbottom headed a NAPA Racing UK 1-2-3 in the opening British Touring Car Championship practice session at Oulton Park, just under a tenth of a second ahead of Ash Sutton.

The Alliance Racing-run cars spent much of the session at the top of the times, after Rowbottom went quickest around 17 minutes in with a lap of 1 minute 26.008 seconds.

Seconds later, team-mate Dan Cammish deposed him, but Rowbottom returned to the top on his next lap, and went quicker still, before Sutton went quickest at the halfway point.

Sutton then stayed on top for 15 minutes, before Rowbottom went quicker still on his final two flying laps, ending with a lap of 1:24.485.

Sutton was second, 0.095 seconds adrift, whilst Cammish completed the Ford 1-2-3, a further two tenths of a second back.

Tom Chilton was the best of the Team Vertu drivers in fourth, generally lapping quicker than his Hyundai team-mates throughout the 40-minute session, ahead of team-mate Tom Ingram in fifth, who was just under half a second off the pace.

Adam Morgan completed the Team Vertu trio in sixth, ahead of One Motorsport’s Josh Cook in seventh.

The top ten was completed by Toyota trio Gordon Shedden, Árón Taylor-Smith and James Dorlin, who demonstrated a good turn of pace for the locally-based Speedworks Motorsport squad.

The WSR-run BMWs struggled for pace – Charles Rainford was the fastest of the 3 Series drivers in 15^th, directly ahead of reigning champion Jake Hill in only 16^th, 1.398 seconds off the pace.

Rookie Finn Leslie, replacing Ronan Pearson this weekend at Toyota, was 22^nd on his first-ever BTCC session, just under two seconds adrift.

Second practice is scheduled to begin at 12:05 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	20	1:24.485	–
2	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	1:24.580	0.095
3	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	1:24.794	0.309
4	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	16	1:24.932	0.447
5	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	1:24.978	0.493
6	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	16	1:25.044	0.559
7	66		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	16	1:25.182	0.697
8	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	1:25.223	0.738
9	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	1:25.235	0.750
10	132		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	1:25.336	0.851
11	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	1:25.345	0.860
12	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	1:25.375	0.890
13	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	1:25.694	1.209
14	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	18	1:25.741	1.256
15	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	16	1:25.775	1.290
16	1		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	16	1:25.883	1.398
17	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	1:25.960	1.475
18	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	1:25.991	1.506
19	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	17	1:26.006	1.521
20	18		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	14	1:26.010	1.525
21	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	18	1:26.321	1.836
22	26		Finn LESLIE	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	1:26.475	1.990
23	93		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	9	1:26.958	2.473
24	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	1:29.154	4.669
25	12		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	4	No time	N/A