Gordon Shedden posts the fastest time in wet first practice

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden was the fastest driver in the first British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Knockhill, lapping less than a tenth of a second quicker than Excelr8 Motorsport’s Chris Smiley on a wet circuit.

The circuit began on a very wet circuit following an isolated rain shower ahead of the session, meaning that times were some way off the fastest laps at the Scottish circuit.

Shedden, who also works at the circuit as Business Development Manager, posted the best lap half-way through the session, which stood as the benchmark of 55.032 seconds despite the sun breaking through towards the end of the 40-minutes.

The session had been red-flagged around halfway through when Jade Edwards went off in her BTC Racing Honda and ended up in the barriers.

When track action resumed, no one was able to usurp Shedden at the top, with Smiley having also put his Hyundai in second before the halfway stage.

Colin Turkington was the leading Team BMW driver in third, just over two tenths off the pace, ahead of the top Infiniti of Scot Aiden Moffat in fourth.

Tom Oliphant’s BMW was fifth, ahead of Jake Hill’s MB Motorsport Ford Focus in sixth, BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor in seventh and championship leader Ash Sutton’s Infiniti in eighth.

The top ten was completed by BTC Racing’s Josh Cook and MB Motorsport’s Ollie Jackson.

A challenging session for Rory Butcher saw the Scot just 13^th in his Toyota Corolla, the Speedworks driver having endured an alternator cable issue which meant he completed just 14 laps – fewer than any other driver.

Tom Ingram was also somewhat off the pace in his ballast-laden Hyundai, the Excelr8 driver being just 23^rd and over a second off the best time in the mixed conditions.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 BST, followed by qualifying at 14:50 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	25	55.032	–
2	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	20	55.057	0.025
3	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	30	55.279	0.247
4	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	22	55.389	0.357
5	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	21	55.395	0.363
6	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	23	55.445	0.413
7	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	23	55.456	0.424
8	1		Ash SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	23	55.478	0.446
9	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	28	55.604	0.572
10	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	27	55.647	0.615
11	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	28	55.663	0.631
12	20		Paul RIVETT	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	25	55.727	0.695
13	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	55.758	0.726
14	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	20	55.789	0.757
15	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	20	55.794	0.762
16	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	55.880	0.848
17	99		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	25	55.925	0.893
18	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	55.950	0.918
19	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	27	55.956	0.924
20	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	22	55.959	0.927
21	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	27	55.964	0.932
22	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	23	56.021	0.989
23	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	56.057	1.025
24	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	30	56.131	1.099
25	19		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	29	56.358	1.326
26	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	20	56.415	1.383
27	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	56.542	1.510
28	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	25	56.622	1.590
29	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	23	56.723	1.691