Tom Ingram put his Excelr8 Motorsport at the top of the times in the second British Touring Car Championship practice session at Brands Hatch, almost four tenths of a second clear of Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson.
Ingram almost ended up with the top time of the morning’s first session before being usurped by Dan Cammish at the last second.
But this time around, with track temperatures much warmer than earlier in the day, the Hyundai driver was untroubled, first rising to the top of the times eight minutes into the session.
After other drivers went quicker, Ingram then put himself back at the top for good after 25 minutes, and he cemented the top spot with another improvement three minutes from the end with a lap of 1 minute 30.213 seconds, over a second quicker than in first practice.
An impressive late improvement from Thompson saw him put his CUPRA in second, albeit 0.397 seconds slower than Ingram.
Dan Lloyd ended up in third, the Excelr8 driver also making a late gain, ahead of Team BMW’s Colin Turkington in fourth.
First-practice pace-setter Cammish put his NAPA Racing UK Ford in fifth, just under half a second off the pace, with BTC Racing’s Jason Plato a mere 0.003 seconds behind in sixth after taking to the track much more in the more valuable second practice.
Ciceley Motorsport’s George Gamble was again the second-fastest 3 Series driver in seventh, ahead of the top Team Dynamic Honda of Daniel Rowbottom in eighth.
The top ten was completed by title contenders Jake Hill (MB Motorsport) and Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK), the latter rising 11 places on his last effort at the end of the session.
Josh Cook, who like BTC team-mate Plato had elected to complete minimal running in the cool first session, was 11th fastest, ahead of the second Team BMW car of Stephen Jelley in 12th.
The Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyotas weren’t quite as quick this time around, with Ricky Collard leading team-mate Rory Butcher in 13th and 14th respectively.
Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan had an early left-rear puncture at Paddock Hill Bend and the Lancashire racer ended the session in 20th as the slowest of the BMW drivers.
Gordon Shedden completed just four laps before electronic issues with his car’s hybrid system meant he returned to the pits, leaving him down in 21st.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:40 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 |  |
Tom INGRAM | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 18 | 1:30.213 | – |
| 2 | 19 | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 1:30.610 | 0.397 |
| 3 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | 1:30.630 | 0.417 |
| 4 | 50 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 19 | 1:30.643 | 0.430 |
| 5 | 9 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1:30.686 | 0.473 |
| 6 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:30.689 | 0.476 |
| 7 | 42 | |
George GAMBLE | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 1:30.714 | 0.501 |
| 8 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:30.718 | 0.505 |
| 9 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | ROKiT MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 1:30.738 | 0.525 |
| 10 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 20 | 1:30.753 | 0.540 |
| 11 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 19 | 1:30.761 | 0.548 |
| 12 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 21 | 1:30.828 | 0.615 |
| 13 | 21 | |
Ricky COLLARD | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 21 | 1:30.900 | 0.687 |
| 14 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 17 | 1:30.911 | 0.698 |
| 15 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | 1:30.955 | 0.742 |
| 16 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 1:30.987 | 0.774 |
| 17 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 20 | 1:31.024 | 0.811 |
| 18 | 777 | |
Michael CREES | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 1:31.153 | 0.940 |
| 19 | 17 | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 20 | 1:31.209 | 0.996 |
| 20 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 1:31.373 | 1.160 |
| 21 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 4 | 1:31.497 | 1.284 |
| 22 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 1:31.675 | 1.462 |
| 23 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 15 | 1:31.863 | 1.650 |
| 24 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 1:31.887 | 1.674 |
| 25 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 15 | 1:31.950 | 1.737 |
| 26 | 41 | |
CarL BOARDLEY | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 17 | 1:32.102 | 1.889 |
| 27 | 97 | |
Ash HAND | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 10 | 1:32.260 | 2.047 |
| 28 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 1:32.496 | 2.283 |
| 29 | 62 | |
Rick PARFITT JR | Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 14 | 1:33.197 | 2.984 |