Ash Sutton displayed his well-known pace despite not setting any lap times until the final five minutes of the session to top the opening BTCC practice session of the year. The three-time champion not only jumped up to the top in the last moments but did it with a large margin to the rest of the field of almost half a second.
After many installation and check laps and a red flag stoppage to tighten the session further, the lap times began dropping rapidly in the final moments of the session.
An overcast eight degrees were the conditions of the first official laps on circuit in 2023 with a familiar face topping the time sheets early on. Colin Turkington setting the first lap time of the season, quickly getting up to speed as the early installation laps took place.
Turkington and Ricky Collard were the only two setting laps in the opening minutes with the former setting a 1:10.052 not eight minutes into the session.
The NAPA Racing car of Daniel Rowbottom took the top spot away from Turkington and Team BMW seconds before the first red flag of the season was thrown.
The flag was thrown for reigning champion Tom Ingram as his EXCELR8 car had come to a halt down at the old hairpin just over 10 minutes into the session.
The clock was stopped and got back underway with 17 minutes remaining and with only five drivers having set lap times before the red flag dropped the track became very busy.
Jake Hill was the next to top the timesheet and the first to drop into the 1:08’s as the BMWs started strong across the board with all cars in the top five consistently throughout the session.
Power Maxed Racing also started strongly after both Andrew Watson and Árón Taylor-Smith traded times consistently with Rowbottom and the BMW’s.
It took until five minutes remained before the majority of the grid started to put in competitive laps. At the same point we were still awaiting eight drivers to either set a lap or a representative lap.
Turkington retook his top spot with a 1:08.455 taking the top spot from Hill by 0.146 seconds late on in the session.
Ash Sutton set his first flying lap of the weekend by putting his Ford at the head of the field straight away only with two minutes remaining. Getting ahead of Turkington by 0.464 seconds setting a 1:07.975 on his second attempt.
The lap times came tumbling down as the chequered flag went out. Behind Turkington was hill in P3 and Ricky Collard shot up to P4 being the only non BMW or Ford inside the top eight in the Toyota for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Rowbottom continued his early pace placing in P5 for Napa Racing with Stephen Jelley next in P6 ahead of teammate and lowest placed Team BMW Adam Morgan in P7.
Dan Cammish was next to set a representative time in his Napa Racing Ford as he finished 0.008 seconds ahead of Ronan Pearson in the EXCELR8 Hyundai who also tightly beat Tom Chilton by 0.012 seconds and completing the top 10 in the first practice session of the season.
Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:15 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 116 |  |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 14 | 1:07.975 | – |
| 2 | 4 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 21 | 1:08.439 | 0.464 |
| 3 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 13 | 1:08.585 | 0.610 |
| 4 | 37 | |
Ricky COLLARD | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 1:08.641 | 0.666 |
| 5 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 1:08.648 | 0.673 |
| 6 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 13 | 1:08.725 | 0.750 |
| 7 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 15 | 1:08.731 | 0.756 |
| 8 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 13 | 1:08.858 | 0.883 |
| 9 | 14 | |
Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 16 | 1:08.866 | 0.891 |
| 10 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 9 | 1:08.878 | 0.903 |
| 11 | 42 | |
George GAMBLE | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 1:09.053 | 1.078 |
| 12 | 11 | |
Andrew WATSON | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 1:09.099 | 1.124 |
| 13 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1:09.141 | 1.166 |
| 14 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 1:09.242 | 1.267 |
| 15 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 13 | 1:09.310 | 1.335 |
| 16 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:09.315 | 1.340 |
| 17 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 11 | 1:09.776 | 1.801 |
| 18 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 14 | 1:09.906 | 1.931 |
| 19 | 17 | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 11 | 1:09.922 | 1.947 |
| 20 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:10.137 | 2.162 |
| 21 | 88 | |
Mikey DOBLE | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 14 | 1:10.227 | 2.252 |
| 22 | 22 | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 16 | 1:10.289 | 2.314 |
| 23 | 70 | |
Will POWELL | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 17 | 1:10.751 | 2.776 |
| 24 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 7 | 1:16.457 | 8.482 |
| 25 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 6 | No time | N/A |
| 26 | 19 | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 6 | No time | N/A |
| 27 | 1 | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 4 | No time | N/A |