West Surrey Racing BMW young gun Daryl DeLeon led the way in free practice for the final round of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.
The smooth-driving Anglo-Filipino whisked his 330i M Sport around the swooping Grand Prix circuit quicker than anyone else in the second session, which took place in largely dry but extremely windy conditions.
DeLeon had also set the second fastest time in the earlier session, which took place on a track that was decidedly damp in the wooded sections of the GP loop, although he was quickest on theoretical bests from sector times.
FP2 appeared to be boiling down to a battle between the WSR BMW squad’s Jack Sears Trophy combatants DeLeon and Charles Rainford.
The duo both pitted in the closing laps, and were split by a last-lap flier from the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Josh Cook, who ended up just 0.053 seconds adrift of DeLeon’s best.
“It’s really good I think,” said DeLeon. “It was nice to have the dry track out on the GP circuit, although there was still a bit of muddy water on the exit of Stirling’s, so it’s not nice to have that kick of oversteer when you run through it.
“It’s practice, so let’s hope we can do the same in qualifying.”
Charles Rainford, LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR BMW 330i M Sport
Photo by: JEP
Of the wind, he added: “Our braking points, they don’t vary, but sometimes you go into Paddock Hill on the brakes nice and hard, and you miss the corner.”
Behind third-placed Rainford, Adam Morgan made it four drivers within 0.1s at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback.
Next up was Morgan’s team-mate Senna Proctor, with Dan Rowbottom sixth in the quickest of the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus STs.
Championship leader Tom Ingram largely kept his powder dry, but got out on soft tyres right at the end of FP2 and propelled his Excelr8 Hyundai up to seventh on the final lap.
Ingram’s title rival Ash Sutton did not appear to do a proper run on soft tyres in his Alliance Ford. With the four-time champion ending FP2 18th, that means he will run in a different group in the opening phase of qualifying to Ingram’s.
Rounding out the top 10 were Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundai, Aiden Moffat’s WSR BMW and Tom Chilton’s Excelr8 Hyundai.
Alliance Ford ace Dan Cammish topped FP1 with a run on soft tyres, but did not do a proper soft-shod run in FP2. He led the way in the early-morning session from medium-shod DeLeon by 0.223s, with Rainford third on softs and Sutton fourth on mediums.
That session featured the only red flag a few minutes in, when a fallen branch hit some spectators who needed medical attention.
BTCC Brands Hatch – Practice results
FP2
FP1
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– The Autosport.com Team
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