The first practice session for round four of the 2025 British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton was led by championship leader Ash Sutton.
Rain was a big threat for this session on an already damp surface meaning difficult conditions for the drivers to navigate in the first BTCC session of the weekend.
Cook leads early on
Headlights and windscreen wipers were a must in the first half of the session as dark clouds covered the circuit. Josh Cook weathered the storm in the early stages and topped the times at the halfway point. But we had only seen around half of the drivers out on track by this point. Most opted for the hard tyre initially but more rainfall saw some drivers jump onto the wet compound.
The final five minutes saw a late flurry of action with almost every driver out on the circuit. As track conditions improved, so did the lap times and Ash Sutton asserted himself at the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:15.677. This laptime from Sutton is quicker than the current race lap record in the BTCC. It was an impressive showing for BMW as Aiden Moffat and reigning champion Jake Hill rounded out the top three. The BMW pair were over half a second of Sutton’s time.
Dan Lloyd finished as the top independant driver in fourth place and Adam Morgan rounded out the top five in his Hyundai. Charles Rainford took the flag with the sixth fastest time despite a puncture on one of his final laps. Second place driver in the standings Tom Ingram did not set a flying lap in this session. He said that he was just bedding in his tyres and working on his setup throughout this session.
With more rain forecast throughout the day, FP2 and qualifying promise to be action packed sessions.
Feature and Map Image: BTCC