Jake Hill leads the way in opening Thruxton practice

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill set the pace in the opening British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Thruxton, lapping the Hampshire circuit in 1 minute 15.341 seconds.

Hill was just under two tenths of a second clear of EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in the red-flag-interrupted session.

The stoppage came just under half an hour into the session when NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish went off, but the Ford Focus racer was able to get going and the stoppage was limited to just three minutes.

Power Maxed Racing had a strong session, with Árón Taylor-Smith in third, the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Adam Morgan led the BMW contingent in fourth, ahead of the quickest Toyota of Andrew Watson in fifth.

The second Team BMW 3 Series of Colin Turkington was sixth, although the Northern Irishman suffered a bizarre issue in the session when the front bonnet on his car crumpled, despite him not having hit anything, in an apparent issue with the bonnet pins.

EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton was seventh, ahead of championship leader Ash Sutton in eighth, who headed up a NAPA trio as team-mates Daniel Rowbottom and Cammish completed the top ten.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 BST.

Session result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	15	1:15.341	–
2	100		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	1:15.532	0.191
3	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1:16.173	0.832
4	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	16	1:16.350	1.009
5	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:16.461	1.120
6	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	14	1:16.478	1.137
7	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	1:16.497	1.156
8	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	1:16.517	1.176
9	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	1:16.606	1.265
10	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	13	1:16.778	1.437
11	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1:17.149	1.808
12	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	1:17.259	1.918
13	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	1:17.351	2.010
14	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:17.364	2.023
15	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	1:17.449	2.108
16	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	17	1:17.538	2.197
17	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	14	1:17.888	2.547
18	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	17	1:18.567	3.316
19	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	1:19.046	3.705
20	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	1:19.562	4.221