Aiden Moffat emerges with fastest time in Oulton Park practice

Power Maxed Racing’s Aiden Moffat set the top time in free practice for the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, just over a tenth of a second ahead of Team VERTU’s Tom Chilton.

Moffat put in the best lap of 1 minute 24.213 seconds, just 0.357 seconds off the qualifying lap record, in the final two minutes of the session, which had started on a slightly moist circuit.

Despite the dampness, all drivers ran with slick tyres in the 40-minute session, which saw few drivers pushing in the first two thirds of running as they instead focussed on tyres, setups and brake pads.

It took Chilton until the final ten minutes of the session to even post a competitive time, having spent much of the session in the garage as his EXCELR8 Motorsport team worked to resolve an issue on his car. The Hyundai driver eventually went second in the final minute.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was likewise a late improver, going third a quarter of a second slower than Moffat’s Audi.

Mikey Doble enjoyed a spell at the top of the times at the mid-point of the session but eventually finished in fourth, ahead of the leading NAPA Racing UK car of championship leader Ash Sutton in fifth.

James Drolin put the second Restart Racing Hyundai in sixth, ahead of NAPA’s Dan Cammish in seventh, Power Maxed’s Dexter Patterson in eighth, Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram in ninth and WSR’s Daryl De Leon in tenth.

15 drivers were covered by less than a second, although neither of the Plato Racing Mercedes of Adam Morgan or Daniel Rowbottom were within that margin, the duo ending up down in 16^th and 17^th respectively.

Toyota’s Max Buxton did not post a lap – his team put out a statement on social media earlier in the day reporting that the 20-year-old “unfortunately will miss today’s qualifying day due to a viral infection. Doctors are hopeful he will be cleared to race tomorrow.”

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 BST, followed by the qualifying race at 15:05 BST.

Session result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	19	1:24.213	–
2	3		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	1:24.346	0.133
3	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:24.443	0.230
4	88		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	20	1:24.554	0.341
5	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	19	1:24.584	0.371
6	132		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	1:24.828	0.615
7	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	17	1:24.846	0.633
8	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	19	1:24.848	0.635
9	80		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1:24.887	0.674
10	2		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	19	1:24.898	0.685
11	11		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	20	1:24.949	0.736
12	50		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:25.054	0.841
13	66		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	1:25.055	0.842
14	99		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	20	1:25.148	0.935
15	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	1:25.166	0.953
16	33		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	1:25.281	1.068
17	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	20	1:25.437	1.224
18	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	1:25.652	1.439
19	15		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	15	1:25.804	1.591
20	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	1:26.491	2.278
21	19		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	0	No time	N/A