Charles Rainford hits the front in second Knockhill practice
Charles Rainford hit the top of the timesheets in the final British Touring Car Championship free practice session around Knockhill.
The West Surrey Racing driver moved to the summit of the leaderboard in the closing stages of a truncated session – which saw the red flag twice make an appearance to allow marshals to reposition barriers at the chicane.
Rainford’s 50.787s lap time was the fastest of the day so far around the undulating Fife venue however his margin was far from comfortable as Speedworks Motorsport’s Aron Taylor-Smith finished 0.020s behind the BMW driver.
Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd enjoyed a strong showing to finish third, less than a tenth of a second ahead of championship leader and Free Practice 1 pace-setter Tom Ingram.
Senna Proctor and Chris Smiley made it four Hyundai’s inside the top six whilst Daryl Deleon, who had sat at the top of the times earlier in the session, ultimately ended up finishing hot on their heels in seventh place.
Completing the top ten was the Alliance Racing Ford Focus duo of Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish, as well as home hero Aiden Moffat in his rear-wheel-drive BMW.
Two notable absentees from the top ten were four-time champion Ash Sutton and three-time title winner Gordon Shedden, the latter spending much of the session in the pit lane as his Toyota team fought to rectify an exhaust issue.
Qualifying at Knockhill is scheduled to get underway at 15:00.
