West Surrey Racing’s Daryl De Leon put in a late lap to claim the top spot in the British Touring Car Championship practice session at Brands Hatch, usurping Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram by less than a tenth of a second.

De Leon lapped the Grand Prix circuit in 1 minute 28.982 seconds to top the times with only a minute left on the clock, beating the Hyundai driver, who had also climbed the times in the final minutes.

That left new champion Ash Sutton to claim third in his NAPA Racing UK car, the Ford driver having moved himself briefly to the top of the times with just over four minutes to go.

CPRL’s Daniel Rowbottom hauled his Mercedes from eighth to fourth in the final minutes, whilst Tom Chilton, who announced his retirement from the BTCC earlier this weekend, was fifth in his Team VERTU Hyundai.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was the second-quickest Independent in sixth, ahead of the Toyota of Josh Cook in seventh and the second Power Maxed Audi of Aiden Moffat in eighth.

A flurry of late improvements meant that NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish, who was top of the times with his effort of 1:29.601 with just under five minutes to go, ended the session in ninth, whilst the top ten was completed by the third Power Maxed Audi of Dexter Patterson.

The top 12 drivers were covered by less than a tenth of a second, with 11th-placed Daniel Lloyd and 12th-placed Lewis Gilbert the only other drivers below that benchmark.