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.
Source: Autosport