Ash Sutton heads the pack in second practice at Croft

Defending champion Ash Sutton topped the times for the first time this season after leading the way in second practice ahead of the fifth meeting of the BTCC season at Croft.

The Team BMR driver posted a best time of 1min 24.700secs during a 40 minute session truncated by two red flags to edge Sam Tordoff out of top spot, with the pair split by just 0.009s.

Sutton had been on the pace throughout the opening session and whilst his best time wasn’t as quick as Tom Ingram had managed earlier in the morning, it was still his fastest lap of the day – with the rear-wheel drive Levorg showing improved performance after a difficult start to the year.

Behind second-placed Tordoff, Josh Cook was third fastest in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, with Rob Collard the fastest of the BMW drivers in fourth. Rob Austin and Tom Ingram rounded out the top six.

Ingram had looked like being the one driver who could knock Sutton off the top of the pile during the final seconds of the session but yellow flags in the second sector prevented him from building on a purple first sector of the lap.

Rory Butcher was seventh quickest in his MG ahead of Jake Hill’s VW, with the top ten rounded out by Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan.

All 32 drivers were able to take part in the session, although Bobby Thompson was restricted to just three laps.