Aiden Moffat leads the way in Knockhill practice

Aiden Moffat topped the times in the sole British Touring Car Championship practice session of the weekend at Knockhill, beating his Power Maxed Racing team-mate Dexter Patterson by less than a tenth of a second.

In what proved to be a busy session around the undulating 1.27-mile circuit, the Scottish duo laid down a marker to the rest of the field, with Moffat’s best time of 50.840s of being the time for everyone to chase.

Both Moffat and Patterson were two of several late improvers in the 50-minute session, with the Audi A3 Saloon duo ultimately being separated by 0.080s.

Plato Racing’s Dan Rowbottom was another driver that moved up the order late on to clinch third, ahead of lead Independent and the third Power Maxed Racing Audi entry of Mikey Doble who was fourth.

Next up was the second Mercedes of Adam Morgan in fifth, who finished narrowly ahead of Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley and reigning champion Tom Ingram, who occupied seventh place.

Completing the top ten was early pace-setter Daryl De Leon in the WSR BMW, MB Motorsport’s Aron Taylor-Smith and Ricky Collard, who recently confirmed that he will continue in the series for at least the next three events.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was one of the busiest drivers on-track as he clocked a total of 38 laps, however his fastest time was only good enough for 14th overall.

No less than 22 of the 23 drivers competing north of the border were covered by less than a second, with Nick Halstead completing the field as he makes his BTCC return in a fourth Audi.

Qualifying at Knockhill is scheduled to begin at 14:05 this afternoon, prior to the Qualifying Race which is due to begin at 15:05.