Ash Sutton upped the pace in the second British Touring Car Championship free practice session around Brands Hatch Indy, posting a best lap which was three tenths of a second quicker than the morning session.
Sutton put in his best effort around halfway through the session, ousting Tom Ingram from the top of the timesheets with his lap of 48.525 seconds.
Although around six tenths of a second slower than the qualifying lap record set in 2016, the pace was around half a second quicker than the session earlier in the day.
Team Dynamics duo Daniel Rowbottom and Gordon Shedden enjoyed another strong showing in their Honda Civics, ending the session with the second and third best times, the only other drivers to be within a tenth of Sutton.
Having been fastest just before halfway, Excelr8 Motorsport’s heavily-ballasted Ingram ended up in fourth as the best of the Hyundais, ahead of an improved showing by BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor in fifth.
Adam Morgan was the leading BMW driver in sixth, putting his Ciceley Motorsport car ahead of the Team BMW 330i M Sport of Tom Oliphant, who was seventh and just a hundredth slower.
Jason Plato made further pace gains from first practice and put his Vauxhall in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the BMW of Stephen Jelley and BTC Racing Honda of Josh Cook.
Colin Turkington was just 14th fastest in his BMW, just over four tenths off the pace in a competitive field which saw the top 26 cars covered by less than a second.
An early red flag stoppage reduced the running of drivers slightly, with the delay caused by MB Motorsport’s Ollie Jackson who went off at Druids.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:10 BST.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Ash SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 34 | 48.525 | – |
| 2 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 31 | 48.571 | 0.046 |
| 3 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 23 | 48.582 | 0.057 |
| 4 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 23 | 48.710 | 0.185 |
| 5 | 18 | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 27 | 48.765 | 0.240 |
| 6 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 26 | 48.791 | 0.266 |
| 7 | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 28 | 48.801 | 0.276 |
| 8 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 28 | 48.802 | 0.277 |
| 9 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 24 | 48.836 | 0.311 |
| 10 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 23 | 48.844 | 0.319 |
| 11 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 31 | 48.871 | 0.346 |
| 12 | 22 | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 30 | 48.873 | 0.348 |
| 13 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 32 | 48.924 | 0.399 |
| 14 | 2 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 27 | 48.948 | 0.423 |
| 15 | 31 | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 30 | 48.963 | 0.438 |
| 16 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 23 | 48.970 | 0.445 |
| 17 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 29 | 48.978 | 0.453 |
| 18 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 29 | 49.014 | 0.489 |
| 19 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 25 | 49.041 | 0.516 |
| 20 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 34 | 49.046 | 0.521 |
| 21 | 23 | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 27 | 49.167 | 0.642 |
| 22 | 88 | |
Glynn GEDDIE | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 25 | 49.198 | 0.673 |
| 23 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 31 | 49.222 | 0.697 |
| 24 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 32 | 49.242 | 0.717 |
| 25 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 20 | 49.281 | 0.756 |
| 26 | 44 | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 30 | 49.436 | 0.911 |
| 27 | 62 | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 28 | 49.606 | 1.081 |
| 28 | 4 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 29 | 49.613 | 1.088 |
| 29 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 2 | No time | N/A |