Tom Ingram believes he is in ‘good shape’ after the second British Touring Car Championship event of the season at Brands Hatch, having dropped to third in the drivers’ standings.
Going into the event as the points leader, EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Ingram had just one second of hybrid boost available to him in qualifying and five laps in race one.
As such, the 2022 champion says that contributed to him being unable to get out of Q2 on Saturday, having had an effect on his lap times which he expected.
Ingram initially crossed the finish line where he started in eighth in the opening race, having gained two places through the demise of BMW’s Adam Morgan and NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish, before losing out to team-mate Tom Chilton and Toyota’s Andrew Watson.
But Watson was later handed a penalty for contact with Ingram, promoting the 30-year-old up to seventh.
With six more laps of hybrid available to him in race two, Ingram charged through to second, including a thrilling battle with rival Ash Sutton towards the end of the race.
The Hyundai racer was running in seventh in the final race before a puncture curtailed his progress and forced a pitstop, although he nevertheless salvaged a point for the fastest lap of the race.
Despite the puncture, Ingram was positive with his weekend and admitted that dropping two places in the standings could prove slightly beneficial for the next meeting at Snetterton, where it allows him four more seconds of hybrid in qualifying and two more laps use in the opening race.
“I think we’re in good shape,” Ingram told TouringCars.Net. “The car has felt really, really strong this weekend; we’ve just not had the hybrid to be able to show that.
“In qualifying and race one the car felt fantastic, in race two it was clearly very strong and in race three it’s felt very good, so I have no criticisms on the balance of the car. We just lacked the hybrid to be able to show that this weekend.
“The puncture at the end is circumstantial, more than anything else. Difficult to take, obviously, but it is what it is – there’s no point sulking about it. It’s just up to us to manage that [tyre] slightly better.
“I’m old enough now to not let it bother me and put it behind me, because we’re still very well placed in the championship.
“We’ve dropped to third now, which I think is actually better because it obviously gives us a little bit more hybrid come qualifying for Snetterton.
“In qualifying, we knew we were going to be a tenth and a half off Ash and four tenths off pole, which is about where we ended up.
“We’re not surprised by what we saw this weekend; it’s what we expected.”