Scottish local Gordon Shedden topped the first British Touring Car Championship practice session at Knockhill, lapping the 2 km circuit in 52.944 seconds to beat Tom Onslow-Cole to the top time.
eBay Motors (WSR) driver Onslow-Cole was 0.203 seconds slower than Shedden, as the BMW’s enjoyed a strong session around the undulating Fife circuit. Rob Collard put his BMW third fastest, a further tenth of a second slower than his team-mate.
Paul O’Neill, who is once again standing in for Tony Hughes in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis, was a surprise fourth fastest.
Andrew Jordan was the second-fastest of the Honda drivers, ending the session exactly half a second slower than his works rival.
MG’s Jason Plato posted the sixth fastest time, ahead of the third WSR BMW of Nick Foster.
Ensuring that Speedworks enjoyed their strongest-ever practice session in the BTCC to-date was Adam Morgan, who put his Toyota eighth fastest. The top ten was completed by Dave Newsham and Árón Smith.
Just missing out on a top ten time was Mat Jackson, giving his new NGTC-spec Ford Focus its second race weekend in the BTCC. The top 12 drivers were covered by less than a second, with only 2.215 seconds covering the entire field.
It proved to be a difficult session for Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal, who could only manage the 14th fastest time after suffering from turbo boost problems throughout the 40-minute session.
Daniel Welch suffered from an oil leak on his Proton Persona and ended the session 15th overall.
Second practice takes place at 1210 GMT.