Jake Hill heads opening practice at Brands Hatch

Jake Hill topped the times for WSR in the opening free practice session of the weekend at Brands Hatch ahead of the second meeting of the BTCC season.

With drizzle in the air, the majority of the session was spent with drivers running through various tyre programmes, and conducting shakedown runs as they hit the track for the first time since the season opener at Donington Park.

It would only be in the closing minutes that the quickest laps were set, with Hill going quick enough to edge Ash Sutton out of top spot by just 0.097s at his home circuit.

Sutton was followed by Motorbase team-mate Dan Cammish, with Tom Ingram slotting into fourth with his final lap of the session – having only elected to complete a handful of the 21 laps he logged.

Colin Turkington was best of the rear-wheel drive cars in fifth spot ahead of Bobby Thompson’s Cupra – which had led the way before the late improvements saw others jump ahead.

Dan Rowbottom, Adam Morgan, Ricky Collard and Stephen Jelley rounded out the top ten.