Tom Ingram edged closer to points leader Ash Sutton by flying to pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, with the Excelr8 Motorsport being over four tenths of a second clear.
Ingram hit the top of the times after nine minutes with a lap of 1 minute 29.667 seconds, but he went even quicker 15 minutes later, improving by over a tenth of a second to a lap of 1:29.529.
Either lap would have secured the Hyundai driver pole in the end, as the 29-year-old ended up 0.410 seconds clear of Toyota’s Rory Butcher as he secured his second pole of the season – along with a crucial bonus point which reduces his points deficit to championship leader Sutton to six points.
The lap was also comfortably faster than the previous lap record, which had been set just last year. Such was Ingram’s confidence that he elected not to return to the track for the restarted session.
Like Ingram, Butcher had put in his best effort in the first third of the session, and the Scot was also unable to improve thereafter, giving him a second successive front row starting position.
NAPA Racing UK’s Sutton was third fastest, a mere thousandth of a second further back, although the reigning champion left it until six minutes to go to make that improvement.
It turned out to be ideal timing, as a red flag stoppage was required three and a half minutes from the end to clear away Tom Chilton’s stricken Hyundai which had come to a standstill on the Cooper Straight.
The clock was reset to allow a five-minute shootout, but few improvements came thereafter due to the need for drivers to go through tyre warmup cycles once again.
MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill was fifth – remarkably the BMW driver’s worst qualifying result in the second half of the season – ahead of a first top ten qualifying performance of the year from Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson in sixth.
Laser Tools Racing’s Dexter Patterson put in a career-best qualifying effort to place his Infiniti in seventh, ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan in eighth.
BTC Racing’s Josh Cook was one of the only drivers to improve their lap times in the final five minutes of the restarted session, ending up as the top Honda driver in ninth.
That dropped Team BMW’s Colin Turkington to tenth, even though the championship contender improved his lap on both of his final two efforts, leaving him seven tenths slower than Ingram.
Turkington at least has team-mate Stephen Jelley to act as rear gunner as he put his BMW in 11th, ahead of the second Excelr8 car of Daniel Lloyd in 12th.
In his final BTCC qualifying session, BTC’s Jason Plato was 17th, the last driver to be within a second of the pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 BST on Sunday.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 |  |
Tom INGRAM | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 11 | 1:29.529 | – |
| 2 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 1:29.939 | 0.410 |
| 3 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 1:29.940 | 0.411 |
| 4 | 9 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 1:29.957 | 0.428 |
| 5 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | ROKiT MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 19 | 1:30.030 | 0.501 |
| 6 | 19 | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:30.045 | 0.516 |
| 7 | 17 | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 18 | 1:30.171 | 0.642 |
| 8 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 17 | 1:30.177 | 0.648 |
| 9 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:30.227 | 0.698 |
| 10 | 50 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 17 | 1:30.242 | 0.713 |
| 11 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 1:30.298 | 0.769 |
| 12 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 1:30.333 | 0.804 |
| 13 | 42 | |
George GAMBLE | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 1:30.338 | 0.809 |
| 14 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 15 | 1:30.363 | 0.834 |
| 15 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 1:30.370 | 0.841 |
| 16 | 97 | |
Ash HAND | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 14 | 1:30.429 | 0.900 |
| 17 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1:30.457 | 0.928 |
| 18 | 21 | |
Ricky COLLARD | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 1:30.603 | 1.074 |
| 19 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 17 | 1:30.603 | 1.074 |
| 20 | 777 | |
Michael CREES | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 1:30.638 | 1.109 |
| 21 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:30.646 | 1.117 |
| 22 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 1:30.688 | 1.159 |
| 23 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 17 | 1:30.755 | 1.226 |
| 24 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 1:31.127 | 1.598 |
| 25 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | 1:31.221 | 1.692 |
| 26 | 41 | |
CarL BOARDLEY | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 1:31.446 | 1.917 |
| 27 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 17 | 1:31.510 | 1.981 |
| 28 | 62 | |
Rick PARFITT JR | Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 17 | 1:32.107 | 2.578 |
| 29 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 1:32.233 | 2.704 |