Oliver Taylor began life with the Honda Civic Type R FK7 in perfect fashion by edging out TCR UK championship leader Dan Lloyd in the warm-up session at Brands Hatch.
The Pyro Motorsport racer clocked a best time of 48.918 seconds around the 1.2 mile Indy circuit to eclipse Lloyd’s WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi by 0.015 seconds.
Derek Palmer showed an improved turn of pace to put the DPE Motorsport-run Alfa Romeo Guilietta third, ahead of erstwhile pace-setter Andreas Bäckman.
Finlay Crocker rounded out the top five ahead of Andreas’ sibling Jessica Bäckman, with local racer Lewis Kent putting the Hyundai i30 N TCR in seventh.
The returning Stewart Lines’ CUPRA with eighth ahead of newcomer Robert Gilmour, with the top nine on the timesheets impressively split by less than a second.
BMR Autoglym Academy’s Josh Price rounds out the top ten, ahead of Carl Swift, Howard Fuller, Darelle Wilson and Alex Morgan, with the Renault Megane TCR ending its UK debut 2.2 seconds off the pace.
The third weekend of the 2018 season continues with free practice at 13:25.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 32 | Oliver TAYLOR |  |
Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 21 | 48.918 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 23 | Dan LLOYD | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 48.933 | 0.015 |
| 3 | 61 | Derek PALMER | |
DPE Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 26 | 49.477 | 0.559 |
| 4 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 26 | 49.491 | 0.573 |
| 5 | 8 | Finlay CROCKER | |
Verizon Connect Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 25 | 49.534 | 0.616 |
| 6 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 30 | 49.773 | 0.855 |
| 7 | 38 | Lewis KENT | |
Essex & Kent Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 25 | 49.803 | 0.885 |
| 8 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 32 | 49.835 | 0.917 |
| 9 | 76 | Robert GILMOUR | |
DPE Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 33 | 49.848 | 0.930 |
| 10 | 28 | Josh PRICE | |
BMR Autoglym Academy | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 16 | 50.200 | 1.282 |
| 11 | 45 | Carl SWIFT | |
Endurance Financial Racing | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 24 | 50.306 | 1.388 |
| 12 | 65 | Howard FULLER | |
Sean Walkinshaw Racing | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 21 | 50.377 | 1.459 |
| 13 | 50 | Darelle WILSON | |
DW Racing | Vauxhall Astra TCR | 20 | 50.949 | 2.031 |
| 14 | 5 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing | Renault Mégane TCR | 14 | 51.187 | 2.269 |