Tom Ingram dominated free practice for the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park to lead the way from fellow champion Ash Sutton.
Ingram, the 2022 title winner, was unapproached in the first session in the early morning at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback. All four of his push laps were comfortably quicker than the best anyone else could manage, and by close of play he was 0.565 seconds clear of team-mate Tom Chilton.
The second session was slightly slower than the first, although four-time champion Ash Sutton went quicker than he had in FP1 to take second place in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, 0.360s adrift of Ingram’s FP2 best and 0.425s off the FP1 pace.
“It’s feeling nice, very good,” affirmed Ingram. “I think we’ve all been trying to chase the balance a bit over these last few tests with the weight changing. To some degree we’re all starting again, but it’s doing everything I want it to do.”
Surprisingly, bearing in mind the weight loss of 55kg from the removal of hybrid but the raising of power boost from the turbo engine to the equivalent of hybrid era, Ingram was the only driver below the qualifying lap record – and by only a small margin.
“Given the drop in weight and the increase in the TOCA turbo boost – that sounds like a vaccine for a badger! – I think we’d expect to be quicker in qualifying,” added Ingram.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the most from people yet, and we haven’t seen the most from our side.”
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ingram was one of several drivers to be sin-binned during free practice for multiple track-limits offences. Others included Ronan Pearson (three times), Nic Hamilton (twice), Adam Morgan, Michael Crees, Max Hall and Dan Cammish.
BTCC organiser TOCA has invested in four video cameras to complement the existing track sensors, with these situated at Redgate, Old Hairpin, and both apices of the Esses. The technology resulted in the removal of the car-savaging tyre stacks from the Esses, although it is understood that these are to be reinstalled in time for qualifying.
Chilton’s FP1 time remained good enough for third overall ahead of Adam Morgan, who made it three Excelr8 Hyundais in the top four. Next up were Alliance Ford pair Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom.
Apart from Sutton, reigning champion Jake Hill was the only driver in the overall top 10 to improve in FP2 to whisk his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport up to seventh – and sixth in session.
Hill missed the opening few minutes of FP2 due to ongoing set-up changes being applied “to try to make the car faster – but we ran out of time.”
Mikey Doble finished up eighth overall in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra ahead of BTCC debutants Charles Rainford (WSR BMW) and James Dorlin (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla).
Launch day test-topper Josh Cook had a difficult morning, with his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R requiring an engine change before FP2 due to an oil pressure problem, while Aiden Moffat missed almost the entirety of FP1 with a power issue in his WSR BMW.
BTCC Donington Park – Practice results
FP2
FP1
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