Hill was one of a raft of late improvements in the opening session, which took place amid light drizzle, and steered his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport around the Indy Circuit 0.097 seconds quicker than the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST of three-time champion Ash Sutton.
Apart from a few people bedding in wet-weather rubber, the competitors ran on slick tyres throughout, and the majority took the opportunity to put a heat cycle through the soft-compound Goodyear as option tyres return to the series after a season away this weekend.
Those who did run the soft tyres did so while teetering around early on while the track was at its slippiest, and Hill’s time on the regular mediums, once conditions got as good as they ever were, was over a second off team-mate Colin Turkington’s qualifying lap record.
Points leader Dan Cammish was third in this session in his Motorbase Ford ahead of reigning champion Tom Ingram with his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N and Turkington.
But it was the second session, which took place in completely wet conditions, that will most likely be more relevant to the afternoon qualifying session, with the forecast quite miserable for the rest of Coronation day.
Butcher had run among the leading runners for much of the opening session, but pitted his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport for a set-up change and missed the window when the quickest times were set.
In the second period, the Scot shot out of the blocks, setting the quickest time very early on and finishing a mere 0.005s clear of Sutton.
The contrasting styles of the drivers were remarkable bearing in mind the similarities of their times, with Butcher steering well clear of the kerbs through the tricky Surtees/McLaren S-bend and Sutton smothering them more than anyone else – and rescuing an enormous tankslapper on the grass early in the session.
“It’s quite encouraging I think,” said Butcher, who is attempting to bounce back from a disappointing opening round at Donington Park.
“We were able to replicate that lap on a couple of runs and then the circuit dropped away – it was a bit weird really, but we made the most of it while it was good.”
Bobby Thompson was another kerb-attacker on his way to third spot in his Team Hard Cupra Leon, and the hard-trying reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion set the theoretical best lap of the session based on fastest splits.
Also within 0.1s of Butcher’s best were fourth-placed Hill and the second Speedworks Toyota of Ricky Collard.
Turkington was sixth in this session ahead of Excelr8 Hyundai trio Tom Chilton, Ronan Pearson and Ingram, with Cammish rounding out the top 10.
Cammish was another to take to the grass at Surtees during the session, as well as Ingram and Josh Cook late on, while Adam Morgan plonked his WSR BMW lightly into the barriers at Clearways before guiding it back to the pits and heading back out onto the track.
BTCC Brands Hatch Indy - Practice results
FP1
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jake Hill |
18 | 48.684 | |||
| 2 | Ashley Sutton |
25 | 48.781 | 0.097 | 0.097 | |
| 3 | Dan Cammish |
25 | 48.884 | 0.200 | 0.103 | |
| 4 | Tom Ingram |
21 | 48.925 | 0.241 | 0.041 | |
| 5 | Colin Turkington |
25 | 48.993 | 0.309 | 0.068 | |
| 6 | Bobby Thompson | 24 | 49.008 | 0.324 | 0.015 | |
| 7 | Daniel Rowbottom |
25 | 49.047 | 0.363 | 0.039 | |
| 8 | Adam Morgan |
23 | 49.157 | 0.473 | 0.110 | |
| 9 | Ricky Collard |
26 | 49.220 | 0.536 | 0.063 | |
| 10 | Stephen Jelley |
18 | 49.224 | 0.540 | 0.004 | |
| 11 | Rory Butcher |
22 | 49.251 | 0.567 | 0.027 | |
| 12 | George Gamble | 25 | 49.284 | 0.600 | 0.033 | |
| 13 | Mikey Doble | 22 | 49.291 | 0.607 | 0.007 | |
| 14 | Josh Cook |
17 | 49.372 | 0.688 | 0.081 | |
| 15 | Daniel Lloyd |
22 | 49.415 | 0.731 | 0.043 | |
| 16 | Aiden Moffat |
23 | 49.464 | 0.780 | 0.049 | |
| 17 |  Aron Taylor-Smith |
26 | 49.486 | 0.802 | 0.022 | |
| 18 | Jack Butel | 28 | 49.513 | 0.829 | 0.027 | |
| 19 | Dexter Patterson | 28 | 49.537 | 0.853 | 0.024 | |
| 20 | Andrew Watson |
24 | 49.666 | 0.982 | 0.129 | |
| 21 | Jade Edwards | 29 | 49.779 | 1.095 | 0.113 | |
| 22 | Sam Osborne |
23 | 50.234 | 1.550 | 0.455 | |
| 23 | Will Powell | 24 | 51.344 | 2.660 | 1.110 | |
| 24 | Nick Halstead | 18 | 54.104 | 5.420 | 2.760 | |
| 25 | Ronan Pearson | 16 | 1'04.065 | 15.381 | 9.961 | |
| 26 | Tom Chilton |
9 | 1'04.408 | 15.724 | 0.343 | |
| 27 | Nicolas Hamilton | 7 | ||||
| View full results | ||||||
FP2 results to follow
