Chris Smiley out front in Thruxton practice

Chris Smiley led a Restart Racing one-two in British Touring Car Championship practice at Thruxton, with the Hyundai driver setting his fastest time on the medium tyre.

This weekend’s visit to the Hampshire circuit has brought with it the introduction of the medium tyre being permitted to be used for timed qualifying; while the hard compound remains for all three of Sunday’s races.

Northern Irishman Smiley enjoyed two stints at the top of the leaderboard during the session, with his best time of 1:15.365s ultimately being just a tenth of a second shy of the outright qualifying lap record.

Smiley’s team-mate James Dorlin finished hot on Smiley’s heels in second while championship leader Ash Sutton completed the top three in his Alliance Racing Ford Focus Saloon. Both drivers set their fastest times on the hard tyre.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was next up in fourth, narrowly ahead of the circuit’s most successful touring car driver, Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook.

Completing the top ten was Aron Taylor-Smith, Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram, Adam Morgan and Gordon Sheeden.

Of those making their first appearances of the season, Senna Proctor was the highest placed as he lodged the 14th fastest time overall.

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, a 10-lap race will ensue to decide the grid for Sunday’s opener, with half points on offer too.