Sutton leads Ingram in opening Silverstone practice

British Touring Car Championship leader Ash Sutton has set the early benchmark at Silverstone after emerging from opening practice with the quickest time ahead of fellow title contender Tom Ingram.

The Laser Tools Racing driver cemented his position as the current championship leader by setting a 57.501s lap around the National configuration of the Grand Prix venue, putting Sutton just 0.090s clear of Ingram in second.

Sutton captured the points lead last time out at Thruxton after reigning four-time champion Colin Turkington lost his position at the top of the championship standings, thanks largely to a technical issue in race one.

The Infiniti Q50 driver's 57.501s lap was just under a tenth slower than Jason Plato's qualifying lap record, which the former two-time champion set this time last season.

Sutton's lap will act as a warning sign to the rest of the field with the championship leading Infiniti carrying maximum success ballast (60 kilos).

Tom Oliphant was the quickest BMW runner during the 40-minute running after the Team BMW driver clocked a time just 0.157s off Sutton's ultimate pace.

Oliphant was closely followed by Excelr8 Hyundai's Senna Proctor in fourth, while Honda's Matt Neal completed the top-five FP1 order in fifth.

Dan Cammish was just 0.012s behind his Team Dynamics Honda stablemate in sixth, with Adam Morgan in seventh for the Carlube Racing Mercedes squad.

Team BMW's Turkington was eighth fastest aboard his BMW 330i M Sport machine. Turkington's first non-score of the season at Thruxton has put the defending 16-points behind Sutton with four events to go.

Scottish duo Aiden Moffat and Rory Butcher completed the remainder of the top-ten FP1 order in ninth and tenth.

Elsewhere, Jade Edwards negotiated her first ever BTCC practice session with the 26th fastest time, just 1.1 seconds off the quickest time.

Edwards is making her debut in the series with the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall squad.