Daniel Rowbottom cements Knockhill pace by also topping second practice

NAPA Racing UK’s Daniel Rowbottom also topped the second British Touring Car Championship practice session at Knockhill, as he edged out team-mate Ash Sutton by less than a tenth of a second.

In cloudy and dry conditions at the Scottish circuit, Rowbottom once again left it until late in the session to go top, when he posted a time of 51.120 seconds with just over three minutes to go.

Until that point it was Sutton who had been top, the reigning champion’s best effort being a lap of 51.183.

Toyota’s Andrew Watson, who had been seventh, was once again the best Speedworks Motorsport driver, this time clocking the third best lap, also less than a tenth from the ultimate pace.

EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was the leading Hyundai in fourth, the points leader having slipped back from his earlier second in FP1, but still putting in a strong showing in spite of his lack of hybrid boost available.

Árón Taylor-Smith also continued promising pace, putting his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall in fifth, just under three tenths from Rowbottom.

BMW’s Colin Turkington was the pace-setter for almost half the session following an initial flurry of activity at the top of the times, but the Northern Irishman ultimately ended up in sixth.

Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat was seventh, Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley impressed in eighth, with the top ten completed by Toyota’s Rob Huff and Speedworks’ Josh Cook.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:20 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	28	51.120	–
2	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	28	51.183	0.063
3	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	28	51.192	0.072
4	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	28	51.350	0.230
5	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	26	51.407	0.287
6	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	28	51.421	0.301
7	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	29	51.499	0.379
8	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	25	51.557	0.437
9	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	51.558	0.438
10	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	51.567	0.447
11	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	51.617	0.497
12	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	27	51.662	0.542
13	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	27	51.707	0.587
14	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	29	51.727	0.607
15	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	30	51.875	0.755
16	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	29	51.886	0.766
17	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	25	52.007	0.887
18	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	52.130	1.010
19	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	21	52.329	1.209
20	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	26	52.837	1.717