Chris Smiley hits the front in second Knockhill practice

Chris Smiley backed up the front running pace he had shown in FP1 by topping the times in second practice ahead of the latest rounds of the BTCC season at Knockhill.

The EXCELR8 driver had finished second in the wet/dry conditions that drivers were faced with in the opening session of the weekend but would go one better in the second session, as he moved the Hyundai to the head of the field.

Smiley left it late to secure bragging rights going into qualifying, setting a best time of 51.110s in the closing minutes to take the fastest lap away from Josh Cook, who had been set to head a 1-2 for BTC Racing.

Cook had to settle for second spot with Senna Proctor in third with a time that was just 0.015s slower with Rory Butcher slotting into fourth as he looked to complete more meaningful mileage after his earlier issues.

Colin Turkington was a quarter of a second off the pace in his BMW to secure fifth place ahead of the Cupra of Jack Goff, which had missed the Friday shakedown session as a result of a misfire that the team worked overnight to resolve.

Stephen Jelley, Jason Plato, Jake Hill and Aiden Moffat rounded out the top ten.

Points leader Ash Sutton missed out on the top ten by just 0.032s in eleventh with closest rival Tom Ingram in 16th.

The top 23 drivers in the session were covered by less than a second, with 1.3s covering the entire field.