Ash Sutton hits the front at Brands Hatch

Ash Sutton hit the front in the second free practice session ahead of qualifying for the third meeting of the BTCC season at Brands Hatch.

Despite running with maximum ballast on his Infiniti Q50, Sutton posted the quickest time of the weekend so far to leave him well placed heading into qualifying, with the defending champion setting a best time of 48.525s.

That allowed him to edge Dan Rowbottom into second spot by just 0.046s, with Gordon Shedden – pace setter in FP1 – coming in third with a best time only 0.057s off top spot. The two Hondas will both carry less weight into qualifying as they bid to beat Sutton to pole.

Tom Ingram’s solid start to the weekend continued with fourth spot in the Hyundai ahead of Senna Proctor; the BTC Racing man making the most of the fact he had got rid of the ballast he was forced to carry at Snetterton as he set the fifth best time, with Adam Morgan rounding out the top six as the best-placed of the BMW runners.

Tom Oliphant followed behind in his WSR-run car, with the top ten rounded out by Jason Plato, Stephen Jelley and Josh Cook. Colin Turkington was down in 14th spot, with Jake Hill only 17th, albeit within half a second of the fastest time.

The session was halted briefly early on after an off for Ollie Jackson at Druids, with Nic Hamilton unable to set a time after an off in his Team HARD Cupra.