With a time of 52.545, Jason Plato took top spot at the end of FP1. A stop/start BTCC practice session did not help many of the championship contenders around Knockhill.
A cloudy, yet dry track welcomed the BTCC field as the green light turned on. Ash Sutton has been one of the most impressive rookies this season and started practice in fine form, taking the early lead.
Soon, it was Tom Ingram who took the advantage with a 52.663. The majority of the grid didn’t focus on lap times though, as they set their cars up for the weekend ahead. One driver not holding back was Adam Morgan, the Mercedes-Benz driver received a black and white flag for not obeying track limits, yet kept his lap time.
Drama hit the session at the half way mark with Andrew Jordan off in the tyre wall. He speared off at Clark and seemed out of control over the gravel. A red flag was brought out as the Pirtek Racing car was recovered after his suspected suspension failure. He would eventually finish FP1 in sixth place.
Having set a lap just before the stoppage, Plato sat on top of the timing screens as it went back to green. Ingram, Sutton and Morgan completed the top four as the second half got underway.
Cold tyres saw a few spins in the opening lap, but it wasn’t long before the red flag was called once again. Aron Smith went off in the same area and with 4 minutes to go, that mostly ended the competitive side of the session.
This left Plato on top in his Subaru Levorg GT. Ingram and rookie Sutton rounded out the top three as the majority of the field didn’t focus on lap times. Behind them, was Morgan and Sam Tordoff, who jumped up in the dying laps after being mostly anonymous in the 40 minutes.
