BTCC Brands Hatch: Hill fastest in final BTCC practice of 2020

MB Motorsport driver Jake Hill topped the final British Touring Car Championship practice session of the 2020 season in greasy conditions at the Brands Hatch season finale.

With the BTCC finale taking place much later in the year than usual, the 27-car field had a solitary one-hour free-practice session, in place of the usual two-session practice format, to accommodate for a condensed timetable due to reduced daylight hours.

And it was Hill who dealt with the conditions best after the Honda Civic Type-R driver produced a time [54.678s] just over 0.2s ahead of title challenger Ash Sutton in second.

Just nine-points separates the top-two championship protagonists, with reigning four-time champion Colin Turkington carrying a slender advantage ahead of Laser Tools Racing's Sutton in second.

But the Team BMW driver was only 14th fastest during the one and only practice session of the weekend, while fellow title contenders Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram and Rory Butcher ended the running third, fifth and sixth respectively.

Third fastest Cammish has to overhaul a 25-point deficit in order to clinch his first BTCC title, while Ingram and Butcher head into the final round 34 and 65 points back from Turkington's lead.

Aside from the title contenders, Aiden Moffat was fourth fastest in second Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50, just 0.376s off Hill's ultimate pace.

Ollie Jackson was seventh fastest behind his Motorbase Performance team mate Butcher, while the Excler8 Hyundais of Chris Smiley and Senna Proctor sandwiched the BTC Racing Honda of Josh Cook to complete the top-ten in eighth, ninth and tenth.

Qualifying for Sunday's opening race gets underway at 12:35.