Tom Ingram continued his pre-season testing form into the opening British Touring Car Championship free practice session of the season at Brands Hatch.
Ingram, also quickest on Media Day a fortnight ago, clocked a fastest lap time of 48.164 seconds ahead of the WSR duo of Rob Collard and Andrew Jordan.
For BMW, the session represented the first time both Jordan and the returning Colin Turkington have run their new B48 engine units, developed by Neil Brown Engineering, though both have had limited testing mileage with Collard’s unit.
Adam Morgan claimed fourth, some two tenths of a second adrift of Ingram despite flirting with the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session.
Only one stoppage would halt proceedings, as the sister Mercedes A-Class of Aiden Moffat, reportedly struggling with understeer, headed into the gravel trap at Clearways and brought out the red flags.
Defending champion Gordon Shedden was fifth, though team-mate Matt Neal finished the session 17th after failing to get a representative lap time. Colin Turkington was sixth.
Ashley Sutton was the only Subaru to avoid finishing in the bottom eight, with team-mates James Cole, two-time champion Jason Plato and Clio Cup UK graduate Josh Price in 24th, 30th and 32nd respectively.
Jack Goff marked his Eurotech Racing competitive debut in 8th, with the MG6 GT of Aron Taylor-Smith and Rob Austin’s Toyota Avensis rounding out the top ten runners.
Will Burns finished as the highest placed rookie in 18th, with fellow debutantes Senna Proctor, British GT convert Luke Davenport and reigning Clio Cup champion Ant Whorton-Eales in 22nd, 23rd and 28th.
The second free practice session gets underway at approximately 12:45.
“It’s obviously good to get a good balance on the car early on – so far so good,” commented Ingram.
“Nobody’s showing their hand yet – we’ve still got a lot to find, as will everybody up and down the grid. It’ll be exciting to see!”
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 | Tom INGRAM |  |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 30 | 48.164 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 5 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 26 | 48.281 | 0.117 |
| 3 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 26 | 48.303 | 0.139 |
| 4 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 29 | 48.320 | 0.156 | |
| 5 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 24 | 48.332 | 0.168 |
| 6 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 48.346 | 0.182 |
| 7 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 26 | 48.493 | 0.329 |
| 8 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 24 | 48.506 | 0.342 | |
| 9 | 40 | M | Árón TAYLOR-SMITH |  |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 27 | 48.538 | 0.374 |
| 10 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 25 | 48.551 | 0.387 | |
| 11 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 22 | 48.684 | 0.520 | |
| 12 | 2 | M | Tom CHILTON | |
Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 25 | 48.687 | 0.523 |
| 13 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing | Volkswagen CC | 17 | 48.697 | 0.533 | |
| 14 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
TAG Racing | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 48.712 | 0.548 | |
| 15 | 23 | M | Daniel LLOYD | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 31 | 48.729 | 0.565 |
| 16 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 23 | 48.749 | 0.585 | |
| 17 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 48.753 | 0.589 |
| 18 | 61 | Will BURNS | |
Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing | Volkswagen CC | 28 | 48.844 | 0.680 | |
| 19 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 21 | 48.879 | 0.715 | |
| 20 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 25 | 48.936 | 0.772 | |
| 21 | 3 | Mat JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 30 | 48.939 | 0.775 | |
| 22 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 22 | 48.944 | 0.780 |
| 23 | 300 | Luke DAVENPORT | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 28 | 49.017 | 0.853 | |
| 24 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 23 | 49.048 | 0.884 |
| 25 | 7 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 25 | 49.073 | 0.909 | |
| 26 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 29 | 49.144 | 0.980 | |
| 27 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 28 | 49.280 | 1.116 | |
| 28 | 10 | Ant WHORTON-EALES | |
AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 17 | 49.284 | 1.120 | |
| 29 | 303 | M | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 49.300 | 1.136 |
| 30 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 23 | 49.329 | 1.165 |
| 31 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 8 | 49.730 | 1.566 | |
| 32 | 28 | M | Josh PRICE | |
BMR Racing Academy | Subaru Levorg GT | 23 | 50.231 | 2.067 |