Aiden Moffat led both a Power Maxed Racing and a Scottish 1-2 in the British Touring Car Championship practice session at Knockhill on Saturday, less than a tenth of a second ahead of his team-mate.

Improvements came thick and fast during the 50-minute session around the short 2-kilometre circuit, before Moffat settled the top time for good with eight minutes to spare, knocking Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram off the top spot.

Patterson made a late improvement to nab second, just 0.080 seconds slower than his Audi team-mate, with Plato Racing also performing well as Daniel Rowbottom was third quickest, 0.091 seconds back and having also enjoyed a spell at the top of the times.

Mikey Doble made it three Power Maxed Audis in the top quartet in fourth, 0.116 seconds slower than Moffat.

At one stage it had been a Mercedes 1-2 as Rowbottom head team-mate Adam Morgan with 15 minutes to go, but Morgan had to accept fifth at the chequered flag.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley emerged as the leading Hyundai in sixth, ahead of Ingram’s EXCELR8 Motorsport-run i30 in seventh.

WSR’s Daryl De Leon was the top BMW driver in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Laser Tool’s Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith as the top Toyota and Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard.

The biggest field of the season this year saw the top 22 drivers covered by less than a second, with series returnee Nick Halstead propping up the timesheets. It is also the first time Power Maxed Racing have run four cars in the BTCC, with Halstead behind the wheel of a new Audi A3.