Mikey Doble produces late charge to head BTCC practice

Mikey Doble produced a superb last-gasp lap to charge to the top of the times in the second British Touring Car Championship practice session of the day at Donington Park.

The Power Maxed Racing driver lit up the timesheets as the chequered flag was waved in a drying second session to head the field into qualifying later this afternoon.

Up until Doble’s charge it had looked as though Alliance Racing would reign supreme with the Ford Focus ST trio of Dan Rowbottom, Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton occupying the top three positions.

They would instead be shuffled down to second, third and fourth respectively while Andrew Watson – who was also a late charger – powered his Toyota Corolla GR Sport into the top five.

Championship contender Jake Hill was the lead West Surrey Racing BMW in sixth with Aron Taylor-Smith underlining the speed of the Vauxhall Astra in seventh.

Completing the top ten was Chris Smiley, Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan; points leader Tom Ingram finished hot on their heels in 11th.

After his travails in the day’s earlier session, a steering rack issue prevented Rob Huff from completing any laps.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway this afternoon at 15:05.

Q1 – Group 1: Mikey Doble, Dan Cammish, Andrew Watson, Aron Taylor-Smith, Aiden Moffat, Tom Ingram, Sam Osborne, Scott Sumpton, Nick Halstead, Tom Chilton

Q1 – Group 2: Dan Rowbottom, Ash Sutton, Jake Hill, Chris Smiley, Adam Morgan, Colin Turkington, Dan Zelos, Daryl Delon, Josh Cook, Rob Huff