Ash Sutton sets the pace in first practice at Knockhill

Subaru’s Ash Sutton was the fastest driver in first practice for the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, with a time which was below the current lap record to beat Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff by less than a tenth of a second.

Sutton posted the fastest lap of the session in the final seconds, pipping the Honda of Goff by a mere 0.058 seconds with a time that was quicker than last year’s pole lap around the resurfaced Knockhill circuit.

Goff had earlier gone quickest with five minutes remaining, ultimately ending up in second after he could not better his lap of 51.351 seconds thereafter.

Andrew Jordan was the leading BMW driver in third, despite having missed the first half of the session due to a steering issue on his 125i M Sport.

Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin – seeking a turnaround in fortunes this weekend – showed encouraging early pace to put his Alfa Romeo in fourth, ahead of the leading Team HARD Volkswagen of Mike Bushell in fifth.

Like Bushell, Motorbase’s Tom Chilton had at one point been fastest but ended the session in sixth, ahead of the leading Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes of Tom Oliphant in seventh, who was just ahead of team-mate Adam Morgan in eighth.

Motorbase’s Sam Tordoff and Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram completed the top ten, the latter being 0.423 seconds off the pace despite carrying 66 kg of success ballast.

Team Parker’s Stephen Jelley put in an encouraging performance to end the session as the second-quickest BMW driver in 11^th, whilst championship leader Colin Turkington could only manage 18^th with the maximum ballast on board his Team BMW car.

Subaru’s Jason Plato, who took pole position at the circuit last year, was just 15^th fastest in his Subaru, just over half a second off his team-mate’s pace.

The session was briefly red-flagged due to an off for Matt Simpson in the opening few minutes, with the Honda driver ending up in 21^st after recovering and continuing in the session.

AmD Tuning’s Rory Butcher joined the session late on due to a power steering pump failure on his MG, but the Knockhill local was still able to post the 23^rd best time, eight tenths from the pace.

Second practice takes place at 12:30 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	1	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	26	51.293	0.000
2	31	Jack GOFF		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	29	51.351	0.058
3	77	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	18	51.455	0.162
4	11	Rob AUSTIN		DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	28	51.519	0.226
5	21	Mike BUSHELL		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	28	51.543	0.250
6	3	Tom CHILTON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	22	51.575	0.282
7	15	Tom OLIPHANT		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	31	51.629	0.336
8	33	Adam MORGAN		MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	28	51.640	0.347
9	600	Sam TORDOFF		Team GardX Racing with Motorbase	Ford Focus RS	22	51.645	0.352
10	80	Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	25	51.716	0.423
11	60	Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	31	51.731	0.438
12	66	Josh COOK		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	51.748	0.455
13	22	Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	51.763	0.470
14	16	Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	24	51.781	0.488
15	99	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	25	51.823	0.530
16	48	Ollie JACKSON		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	24	51.882	0.589
17	25	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	51.886	0.593
18	2	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	25	51.909	0.616
19	39	Brett SMITH		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	23	51.921	0.628
20	55	Ricky COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	26	51.999	0.706
21	303	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	52.039	0.746
22	27	Dan CAMMISH		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	26	52.070	0.777
23	6	Rory BUTCHER		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	8	52.101	0.808
24	20	James COLE		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	26	52.138	0.845
25	19	Bobby THOMPSON		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	11	52.162	0.869
26	18	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	52.214	0.921
27	26	Daniel LLOYD		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	52.263	0.970
28	23	Sam SMELT		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	22	52.541	1.248
29	42	Carl BOARDLEY		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	25	52.573	1.280
30	41	Glynn GEDDIE		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	24	53.031	1.738
31	43	Ollie PIDGLEY		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	24	54.453	3.160