Team BMW’s Colin Turkington set the pace in the first British Touring Car Championship practice session of 2020 at Donington Park.
Turkington headed the field with around half an hour remaining in the session, but would then improve further with his time of 1:09.446 dipping under the qualifying lap record at the Leicestershire circuit.
He headed Matt Neal’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R by just over a tenth-and-a-half, while 2017 champion Ash Sutton made a strong start to life in his Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 in third position.
Tom Ingram’s Toyota Corolla placed fourth in the session, 0.256s adrift of Turkington’s benchmark, ahead of 2019 runner-up Dan Cammish who rounded out the top five positions and marked an encouraging start to the weekend for Halfords Yuasa Racing.
After setting the pace in the first quarter of the 40-minute session, Tom Chilton slipped to sixth position in his BTC Racing Honda Civic with his team-mate Josh Cook for company just behind in seventh.
Jake Hill rounded out a quartet of Honda Civics in eighth position after a promising session on MB Motorsport’s BTCC debut.
Likewise, Chris Smiley placed ninth in the new-for-2020 Hyundai i30N, with the Excelr8 Motorsport-run machine just under half a second shy of Turkington’s time.
Completing the top ten was Tom Oliphant, who starts his sophomore season with Team BMW this weekend in his BMW 330i M Sport.
Next was Adam Morgan’s venerable Mercedes-Benz A-Class, ahead of Senna Proctor’s Hyundai in 12th position, while Rory Butcher headed Motorbase Performance’s efforts in 13th in the Kent squad’s new Ford Focus ST.
Jack Goff placed 14th in the Volkswagen CC, while his former team-mate Michael Crees would round out the top 15 runners in the first practice session.
The second BTCC practice session of the day gets underway at 12:10, followed by qualifying at 15:20 this afternoon.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 26 | 1:09.446 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 25 | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 1:09.600 | 0.154 |
| 3 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 1:09.627 | 0.181 |
| 4 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 14 | 1:09.702 | 0.256 |
| 5 | 27 | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 14 | 1:09.761 | 0.315 |
| 6 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 1:09.774 | 0.328 |
| 7 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 20 | 1:09.852 | 0.406 |
| 8 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Honda Civic Type-R | 16 | 1:09.910 | 0.464 |
| 9 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
Excelr8 Motorsport | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 22 | 1:09.917 | 0.471 |
| 10 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 20 | 1:09.926 | 0.480 |
| 11 | 32 | Adam MORGAN | |
Carlube Triple R Racing with Mac Tools | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 1:09.967 | 0.521 |
| 12 | 18 | Senna PROCTOR | |
Excelr8 Motorsport | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 1:10.057 | 0.611 |
| 13 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 17 | 1:10.116 | 0.670 |
| 14 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance Racing with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 1:10.226 | 0.780 |
| 15 | 777 | Michael CREES | |
The Clever Baggers with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 1:10.259 | 0.813 |
| 16 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 1:10.269 | 0.823 |
| 17 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 21 | 1:10.330 | 0.884 |
| 18 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 23 | 1:10.552 | 1.106 |
| 19 | 12 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 21 | 1:10.573 | 1.127 |
| 20 | 4 | Sam OSBORNE | |
MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Honda Civic Type-R | 23 | 1:10.638 | 1.192 |
| 21 | 180 | James GORNALL | |
GKR TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 23 | 1:10.709 | 1.263 |
| 22 | 44 | Andy NEATE | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 1:11.524 | 2.078 |
| 23 | 41 | Carl BOARDLEY | |
Team HARD. | BMW 125i M Sport | 19 | 1:11.530 | 2.084 |
| 24 | 28 | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Team HARD. | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 1:11.928 | 2.482 |
| 25 | 34 | Ollie BROWN | |
RCIB Insurance Racing with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 19 | 1:11.948 | 2.502 |
| 26 | 32 | Jack BUTEL | |
Carlube Triple R Racing with Mac Tools | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 20 | 1:13.369 | 3.923 |