The Northern Irishman eclipsed the quickest time of the opening session set by Ash Sutton, which had been a gargantuan 0.476 seconds clear of closest pursuer Turkington and had seemed to send out an ominous warning that the three-time title winner and the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus squad will be tough to beat in 2023.
During a run of several laps in the early stages of the lunchtime session, Turkington and his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport chipped 0.024s off Sutton’s early-morning time, which was half a second beneath the qualifying lap record set by Jake Hill last season thanks to track resurfacing work.
“I’m enjoying driving the car,” said Turkington. “Donington has always been a good circuit for the 3-Series, and with the extra grip you can push a bit harder.
“But there’s always more to find and that’s the tricky bit. I didn’t expect we’d be in the sevens [both Turkington and Sutton set laps below 1m08s], but I’m sure there’ll be some more people nudging in there in qualifying.”
Sutton was the only driver in the overall top 10 not to improve in the second session, although he did a 1m08.1s during a nine-lap ‘race’ run, while Turkington set a few times in that bracket.
But the morning time set by the new father (Sutton’s girlfriend gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday) was still good for second fastest overall.
Although he was running slower, Sutton looked good for second in the lunchtime session until a raft of late improvements pushed him down to fifth.
Quickest of those was his new team-mate Dan Rowbottom, who has looked strong all day on his first race weekend in a Motorbase Ford since switching from the Team Dynamics Honda squad.
The bearded Midlander narrowly pipped Turkington’s WSR BMW stablemate Jake Hill plus a rejuvenated Tom Chilton, giving a new-build Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N its competitive debut.
Fastest of the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla contingent was Ricky Collard in sixth position, just ahead of the BMW of Adam Morgan, who is beginning his first race weekend with WSR.
Dan Cammish (Motorbase Ford) was eighth while reigning champion Tom Ingram bounced back from an electrical fault that stopped him at Schwantz Curve early in the first session, triggering the only red flag of free practice, to go ninth in the later period.
The top 10 was completed by the fastest of the six-strong Team Hard Cupra Leon contingent in the form of Dan Lloyd.
BTCC Donington: Full practice results
FP2
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Colin Turkington |
22 | 1'07.951 | |
| 2 |
Daniel Rowbottom |
23 | 1'08.046 | 0.095 |
| 3 |
Jake Hill |
18 | 1'08.064 | 0.113 |
| 4 |
Tom Chilton |
21 | 1'08.098 | 0.147 |
| 5 |
Ashley Sutton |
21 | 1'08.159 | 0.208 |
| 6 |
Ricky Collard |
22 | 1'08.221 | 0.270 |
| 7 |
Adam Morgan |
18 | 1'08.263 | 0.312 |
| 8 |
Dan Cammish |
21 | 1'08.288 | 0.337 |
| 9 |
Tom Ingram |
15 | 1'08.326 | 0.375 |
| 10 |
Daniel Lloyd |
19 | 1'08.519 | 0.568 |
| 11 |
Stephen Jelley |
18 | 1'08.610 | 0.659 |
| 12 |
Sam Osborne |
20 | 1'08.632 | 0.681 |
| 13 |
Rory Butcher |
18 | 1'08.734 | 0.783 |
| 14 |
Andrew Watson |
20 | 1'08.745 | 0.794 |
| 15 | Ronan Pearson | 20 | 1'08.783 | 0.832 |
| 16 |
 Aron Taylor-Smith |
17 | 1'08.815 | 0.864 |
| 17 | George Gamble | 16 | 1'08.822 | 0.871 |
| 18 | Dexter Patterson | 22 | 1'08.846 | 0.895 |
| 19 |
Josh Cook |
17 | 1'08.950 | 0.999 |
| 20 | Bobby Thompson | 8 | 1'09.055 | 1.104 |
| 21 | Jack Butel | 19 | 1'09.304 | 1.353 |
| 22 | Mikey Doble | 19 | 1'09.433 | 1.482 |
| 23 |
Aiden Moffat |
17 | 1'09.685 | 1.734 |
| 24 | Nick Halstead | 12 | 1'09.760 | 1.809 |
| 25 | Will Powell | 17 | 1'09.874 | 1.923 |
| 26 | Nicolas Hamilton | 19 | 1'09.994 | 2.043 |
| 27 | Jade Edwards | 10 | 1'10.599 | 2.648 |
| View full results | ||||
FP1
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Ashley Sutton |
14 | 1'07.975 | |
| 2 |
Colin Turkington |
21 | 1'08.439 | 0.464 |
| 3 |
Jake Hill |
13 | 1'08.585 | 0.610 |
| 4 |
Ricky Collard |
16 | 1'08.641 | 0.666 |
| 5 |
Daniel Rowbottom |
16 | 1'08.648 | 0.673 |
| 6 |
Stephen Jelley |
13 | 1'08.725 | 0.750 |
| 7 |
Adam Morgan |
15 | 1'08.731 | 0.756 |
| 8 |
Dan Cammish |
13 | 1'08.858 | 0.883 |
| 9 | Ronan Pearson | 16 | 1'08.866 | 0.891 |
| 10 |
Tom Chilton |
9 | 1'08.878 | 0.903 |
| 11 | George Gamble | 16 | 1'09.053 | 1.078 |
| 12 |
Andrew Watson |
16 | 1'09.099 | 1.124 |
| 13 |
Aiden Moffat |
12 | 1'09.141 | 1.166 |
| 14 |
Daniel Lloyd |
12 | 1'09.242 | 1.267 |
| 15 |
Rory Butcher |
13 | 1'09.310 | 1.335 |
| 16 |
Aron Taylor-Smith |
15 | 1'09.315 | 1.340 |
| 17 |
Sam Osborne |
11 | 1'09.776 | 1.801 |
| 18 | Jack Butel | 14 | 1'09.906 | 1.931 |
| 19 | Dexter Patterson | 11 | 1'09.922 | 1.947 |
| 20 | Nicolas Hamilton | 16 | 1'10.137 | 2.162 |
| 21 | Mikey Doble | 14 | 1'10.227 | 2.252 |
| 22 | Nick Halstead | 16 | 1'10.289 | 2.314 |
| 23 | Will Powell | 17 | 1'10.751 | 2.776 |
| 24 | Jade Edwards | 7 | 1'16.457 | 8.482 |
| 25 |
Josh Cook |
6 | ||
| 26 | Bobby Thompson | 6 | ||
| 27 |
Tom Ingram |
4 | ||
| View full results | ||||
