Daryl De Leon sets the pace in Brands Hatch practice

Daryl De Leon topped the times in the weekend’s only British Touring Car Championship practice session at Brands Hatch, with the WSR driver finishing less than a tenth of a second ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Dexter Patterson.

In what proved to be a busy session around the 1.207-mile circuit – one that saw 20 of the 21 entrants post a time – De Leon emerged as the driver to beat as he hustled his BMW 330i M Sport to a best lap of 47.360s.

Hot on De Leon’s heels was the Audi S3 Saloon of Patterson in second while his team-mate and Donington Park race winner Mikey Doble was a further 0.035 in arrears; the Power Maxed Racing driver completing the top three.

Alliance Racing’s Dan Cammish was next in the order to finish fourth overall, narrowly ahead of his Ford Focus stablemate Ash Sutton in fifth. Completing the top six, just under over a tenth off the pace, was Plato Racing’s Dan Rowbottom.

Behind Rowbottom and rounding out the top ten was reigning champion Tom Ingram, WSR’s Charles Rainford, Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley and the second Plato Racing Mercedes of Adam Morgan.

When the chequered flag fell, 17 of the 21 drivers were blanketed by less than one second. The only driver not to post a time was James Dorlin.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 with the grid splitting into two groups, each of which will be allotted 15 minutes for drivers to set their best time, which will in-turn decide the grid for the inaugural Qualifying Race.

The group with the fastest qualifying time will occupy the odd-numbered grid positions for the Qualifying Race, ordered by their respective qualifying times. The other group will occupy the even-numbered grid positions, also ordered by qualifying times.

Once qualifying has completed, the pit lane will open and cars will head to the grid for what is being titled as the ‘Race for Pole’. There, an 18-lap race will ensue to decide the grid for Sunday’s opener, with half points on offer too.