Colin Turkington headed up a West Surrey Racing one-two in the first free practice session at Knockhill, more than 0.4 seconds faster than team-mate Rob Collard.

On a track where he has widely been tipped to prosper, the championship leader completed 28 laps to top the times, with Collard 0.404 slower and Triple Eight’s Jason Plato 0.502 seconds slower in third.

However, even if he repeats the performance in second free practice and qualifying, the best position the 2009 champion can start is ninth, following his grid penalty carried over from Snetterton.

Home hero Gordon Shedden was fourth for Honda Racing Team ahead of Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan, with Sam Tordoff, Alain Menu, Nick Foster, Rob Austin and Matt Neal completing the top 10.

Of the other Scottish drivers, United Autosports’ Glynn Geddie was 13th after earlier running in the top six, while honourary Scot Dave Newsham was 22nd, and Aiden Moffat was 23rd.

BTC Racing’s Chris Stockton was 28th after completing 29 laps in the now TOCA-powered Chevrolet Cruze, while Dan Welch only completed five laps in his Proton Persona and was last of the 31 drivers.

The session took place in cool conditions on a dry track, although there were still some damp patches offline after rain yesterday and overnight.

It was a largely incident-free session, before Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram ground to a halt before the hairpin in the final minutes.