Thruxton maestro Josh Cook heads opening practice

Josh Cook was the man to beat in opening practice as the Thruxton expert lead the way in the first on-track action ahead of the fourth weekend of the BTCC season.

The One Motorsport driver, who has more Thruxton wins that anyone else, was almost half a second quicker than his closest rival during the session as he put his Honda comfortably clear of the Ford Focus of points leader Ash Sutton.

That was despite Sutton having less hybrid than anyone else, with another driver low on hybrid – Tom Ingram – just behind him in third spot.

Jake Hill was best of the rear-wheel drive runners in fourth having spent time at the head of the timing sheets early on, with Rory Butcher improving late on to make it through into fifth spot ahead of Dan Cammish’s Focus.

Aron Taylor-Smith was an encouraging seventh in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall from Colin Turkington’s BMW, with Dan Lloyd and Stephen Jelley rounding out the top ten.

Aside from a brief period when a red flag was thrown out, the session ran largely without major drama although technical issues limited Tom Chilton to just four laps.