BTCC rookie Charles Rainford brought the BMW WSR stable to the top of the timesheets in the opening free practice session at Brands Hatch this morning (10 May).

The Surrey-based squad endured a challenging outing last time out at Donington Park, failing to reach the rostrum in any of the three races, but the prowess of the 3 Series M Sports looks to be back at the team's home circuit.

LKQ Euro Car Parts with WSR's Rainford set an impressive lap well under the existing qualifying lap record around the 1.21-mile Indy circuit, as did Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport stablemate Jake Hill in second.

"It's surreal really, if we can keep the rest of the day going like that I'll be a happy boy," confirmed Rainford. "This circuit was always going to suit us a bit better than at Donington Park, obviously this is only practice and we don't know what everyone else is doing, but the car is definitely feeling better for me and I'm excited for the weekend.

"We'll see how FP2 goes as its likely to feel more representative as to where everyone else is at, but this is my first time at the top of times in the BTCC so I'm really happy."

NAPA Racing UK and Team Vertu locked out the podium positions at the Donington Park curtain raiser and they'll undoubtedly feature here again this weekend as the Ford of Dan Cammish slotted into third, ahead of the Hyundai duo of Adam Morgan and Tom Ingram.

Chris Smiley (Restart Racing) and Mikey Doble (Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing) continue their solid starts to the 2025 campaign with sixth and seventh in FP1, whilst Dan Rowbottom (NAPA Racing UK), Josh Cook (One Motorsport) and Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK) rounded out the top ten.

The only real incident of note involved three-time champion Gordon Shedden, who went off at Druids in his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA Corolla, bringing about a stoppage to the session.

Apart from the returning Nick Halstead in the PMR-Vauxhall Astra, who was effectively completing a shakedown during the session, the remaining 24 cars were incredibly separated by just 0.834s.

Free Practice 2 commences at 12:15 before Qualifying kicks off at 15:10, with the latter being streamed LIVE via the ITV Sport YouTube channel.

2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch Indy – Free Practice 1 – Final Classification:

More to follow...