Triple Eight’s Sam Tordoff led the way in the second free practice session at Donington Park, just ahead of the Team BMR pair of Aron Smith and Alain Menu.

As with Smith in the first session, Tordoff set two laps good enough to lead the standings, with his eventual best of 1.09.684 set with eight minutes to go in his MG6 GT.

Tordoff and Smith swapped places at the top of the times throughout the session, setting a rapid pace which is already well under last year’s pole position time.

Menu completed 21 laps in the second Volkswagen CC, ahead of Tordoff’s team-mate Jason Plato, and Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class.

Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden was next, ahead of championship leader Andrew Jordan, Marc Hynes, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Martin Depper, with the top 13 cars covered by less than 0.9s.

Outside the top 10, West Surrey Racing were curiously off the pace, with Rob Collard the best of their trio in 13th in his BMW 125i.

Ollie Jackson had an off at the Old Hairpin, causing some damage to the front left of his Welch Motorsport Proton Gen-2, while team-mate Dan Welch managed three laps in his car, which is running for the first time this weekend.

There were black flags for United Autosports’ Glynn Geddie, and the Rob Austin Racing pair of team boss Austin and Hunter Abbott, for repeatedly exceeding track limits during the session.

Qualifying for the first of tomorrow’s three races gets under way at 15:40 BST.