Collard, at the wheel of his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla, traded times for much of the session with Jake Hill in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport.
But Collard, who is celebrating his 26th birthday, landed the last punch to pip Hill by 0.010 seconds with three minutes to go.
All the leading times came in the second session, after early-morning drizzle meant the vast majority of competitors remained on wet-weather tyres throughout the opening period.
On a circuit that has long been regarded as favouring rear-wheel drive, all five of the BMWs finished up in the top eight.
Ciceley Motorsport was notable in going for longer runs with its pair of 330e M Sports, and on such a stint Adam Morgan stamped in a time good enough for third in the order.
After a tough couple of events before the mid-season break, current series runner-up Josh Cook experienced a welcome turnaround in form to put his BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R into fourth spot, although his speed-trap figures remained pretty unspectacular.
Four-time champion Colin Turkington is still using his 2019 title-winning WSR BMW following the heavy damage sustained to his 2022 car at Oulton Park, and he edged out team-mate Stephen Jelley to take fifth.
Dan Rowbottom rose up the order in the closing stages to put the fastest of the Team Dynamics Hondas into seventh, with George Gamble’s Ciceley BMW next.
Dan Cammish was quickest of the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus quartet in ninth, while the top 10 was completed by the best of the Scottish quartet on their local circuit: Rory Butcher in his Speedworks Toyota.
Of the other championship leading lights, Gordon Shedden (Dynamics Honda) was 12th, one spot ahead of Ash Sutton (Motorbase Ford).
Series leader Tom Ingram, meanwhile, languished in 21st position in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, two places behind Croft-winning team-mate Dan Lloyd.
Ingram was black-flagged half an hour into the 40-minute session for repeated track-limits offences and sinbinned for a few minutes, quipping that the unfamiliar Scottish sun had hampered his vision.
Cook was the class act in the damp opening session – the BTC Honda driver was unbeatable on the wet-weather Goodyears and was 0.146s clear of Butcher.
Late in the session, Team Hard Cupra Leon duo Aron Taylor-Smith and Bobby Thompson had slicks bolted on and shot to the top of the times, with Michael Crees similarly putting his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into third ahead of Cook.
Crees had caused the second of two red-flag periods earlier in the session when he spun at Duffus Dip and got stuck in the gravel at Leslie’s. The first stoppage was to retrieve the Team Hard Cupra of Will Powell from the gravel at McIntyre’s.
BTCC Knockhill - Practice results
FP2
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ricky Collard | 31 | 51.283 | ||
| 2 | Jake Hill | 27 | 51.293 | 0.010 | 0.010 |
| 3 | Adam Morgan | 31 | 51.374 | 0.091 | 0.081 |
| 4 | Josh Cook | 25 | 51.377 | 0.094 | 0.003 |
| 5 | Colin Turkington | 31 | 51.491 | 0.208 | 0.114 |
| 6 | Stephen Jelley | 33 | 51.494 | 0.211 | 0.003 |
| 7 | Daniel Rowbottom | 26 | 51.500 | 0.217 | 0.006 |
| 8 | George Gamble | 31 | 51.591 | 0.308 | 0.091 |
| 9 | Dan Cammish | 31 | 51.612 | 0.329 | 0.021 |
| 10 | Rory Butcher | 24 | 51.619 | 0.336 | 0.007 |
| 11 | Ash Hand | 31 | 51.659 | 0.376 | 0.040 |
| 12 | Gordon Shedden | 25 | 51.679 | 0.396 | 0.020 |
| 13 | Ashley Sutton | 29 | 51.693 | 0.410 | 0.014 |
| 14 | Jason Plato | 27 | 51.700 | 0.417 | 0.007 |
| 15 | Aiden Moffat | 29 | 51.703 | 0.420 | 0.003 |
| 16 | Bobby Thompson | 24 | 51.726 | 0.443 | 0.023 |
| 17 | Dexter Patterson | 30 | 51.750 | 0.467 | 0.024 |
| 18 | Michael Crees | 25 | 51.787 | 0.504 | 0.037 |
| 19 | Daniel Lloyd | 31 | 51.800 | 0.517 | 0.013 |
| 20 |  Aron Taylor-Smith | 24 | 51.820 | 0.537 | 0.020 |
| 21 | Tom Ingram | 24 | 51.853 | 0.570 | 0.033 |
| 22 | Tom Chilton | 30 | 51.979 | 0.696 | 0.126 |
| 23 |  Jack Butel | 30 | 52.144 | 0.861 | 0.165 |
| 24 | Jade Edwards | 24 | 52.173 | 0.890 | 0.029 |
| 25 | Sam Osborne | 29 | 52.184 | 0.901 | 0.011 |
| 26 | Ollie Jackson | 28 | 52.200 | 0.917 | 0.016 |
| 27 | Rick Parfitt Jr. | 34 | 52.531 | 1.248 | 0.331 |
| 28 | Will Powell | 31 | 52.754 | 1.471 | 0.223 |
| 29 | Nicolas Hamilton | 26 | 52.780 | 1.497 | 0.026 |
| View full results | |||||
FP1
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aron Taylor-Smith | 25 | 53.088 | ||
| 2 | Bobby Thompson | 21 | 53.531 | 0.443 | 0.443 |
| 3 | Michael Crees | 23 | 54.495 | 1.407 | 0.964 |
| 4 | Josh Cook | 18 | 55.393 | 2.305 | 0.898 |
| 5 | Rory Butcher | 22 | 55.539 | 2.451 | 0.146 |
| 6 | Jake Hill | 20 | 55.752 | 2.664 | 0.213 |
| 7 | Gordon Shedden | 20 | 55.821 | 2.733 | 0.069 |
| 8 | Dan Cammish | 19 | 55.920 | 2.832 | 0.099 |
| 9 | George Gamble | 21 | 55.965 | 2.877 | 0.045 |
| 10 | Ashley Sutton | 21 | 55.967 | 2.879 | 0.002 |
| 11 | Tom Ingram | 18 | 55.972 | 2.884 | 0.005 |
| 12 | Ollie Jackson | 23 | 55.974 | 2.886 | 0.002 |
| 13 | Ricky Collard | 25 | 56.004 | 2.916 | 0.030 |
| 14 | Stephen Jelley | 22 | 56.087 | 2.999 | 0.083 |
| 15 | Daniel Rowbottom | 17 | 56.103 | 3.015 | 0.016 |
| 16 | Jason Plato | 16 | 56.154 | 3.066 | 0.051 |
| 17 | Colin Turkington | 21 | 56.176 | 3.088 | 0.022 |
| 18 | Tom Chilton | 21 | 56.182 | 3.094 | 0.006 |
| 19 | Sam Osborne | 18 | 56.374 | 3.286 | 0.192 |
| 20 | Adam Morgan | 17 | 56.444 | 3.356 | 0.070 |
| 21 | Jade Edwards | 20 | 56.534 | 3.446 | 0.090 |
| 22 | Aiden Moffat | 23 | 56.543 | 3.455 | 0.009 |
| 23 | Dexter Patterson | 23 | 56.582 | 3.494 | 0.039 |
| 24 | Daniel Lloyd | 20 | 56.637 | 3.549 | 0.055 |
| 25 | Jack Butel | 22 | 56.723 | 3.635 | 0.086 |
| 26 | Ash Hand | 18 | 56.924 | 3.836 | 0.201 |
| 27 | Rick Parfitt Jr. | 22 | 57.320 | 4.232 | 0.396 |
| 28 | Nicolas Hamilton | 22 | 57.355 | 4.267 | 0.035 |
| 29 | Will Powell | 7 | 58.360 | 5.272 | 1.005 |
| View full results | |||||
