On his local circuit, Hill put in a late run at the end of the day to snatch the top position away by 0.065 seconds from BTCC returnee Rob Huff, the 2012 World Touring Car champion gearing up for his first domestic season in 20 years with the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota squad.
In turn, Hill and Huff had demoted their team-mates – Josh Cook’s Corolla GR Sport had sat atop the times for much of the largely dry afternoon session, before the 330e M Sport of Adam Morgan moved to the fore.
Morgan ended up third, 0.068s adrift of Hill, with Cook fourth, 0.163s off the summit.
The BMWs and Toyotas at the top of the times are understood to have set their best laps on soft Goodyear tyres, although neither WSR nor Speedworks is yet using the new-for-2024 turbo boost facility that will combine with the existing EV hybrid boost to double the available surge to approximately 60bhp.
“We weren’t really bothered with laptimes because we don’t have engine hybrid yet, but we’ve got the EV hybrid working,” WSR boss Dick Bennetts told Autosport.
“We’re pleased with progress. Even though it looks similar externally, with all the work we’ve done over the winter it’s quite a different car.
“It was normal Jake and he did a good job – they were playing around with quite a few things and just popped a new set of tyres on towards the end.
“We ran soft tyres on Jake and Adam – the main reason is we had punctures on the left-rear around Brands last year.
“We think we’ve traced it back to what’s causing it – something in the chassis, and needing to avoid kerbs early on when the pressures are low.”
Source: Autosport