Tom Ingram ‘in a good place’ after ‘super aggressive’ qualifying race

Tom Ingram was pleased with the pace he demonstrated in a ‘super aggressive’ first-ever British Touring Car Championship qualifying race at Donington Park, which saw the reigning champion narrowly miss out on the win.

Ingram was clearly the fastest driver in the field and led all bar one of the 13 laps, but ultimately was classified in second after a five-second penalty was applied for being out-of-position at the start.

That meant Plato Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom pipped Ingram to the win by the narrowest of margins, but Ingram was nonetheless pleased with his pace.

“We got a five-second penalty for an out of position grid box, which is, fair enough,” said Ingram to TouringCars.Net. “We won the race by 4.976 seconds and were two hundredths away from overturning the five-second penalty…

“We’re in good place for tomorrow. When the big points are on offer, and obviously we’ve got a handful there [in the qualifying race], you still want to score as many as you can, that goes without saying.”

The Team Vertu driver had also been involved in some close-quarters battles on the opening two laps, which saw him go wheel-to-wheel with long-time rival Ash Sutton, before the latter’s race ended at Redgate corner on lap two following light contact between the duo.

Ingram was unequivocal about the incident from his perspective.

“It was super aggressive for the whole of the first couple of laps, really. I don’t know, I’ve not seen what’s gone on, but I think I was sort of driving down the inside. Ash then tried to sort of go into a gap that wasn’t there and found himself on the grass.”

Asked about his first thoughts regarding the new format, the EXCELR8 Motorsport driver expressed some uncertainty.

“I’m not a big fan of it, if I’m honest. It’s just made Saturday feel a little bit weird.

“I think it’s just a change of routine more than anything else and I don’t think it’s the end of the world.

“Qualifying now feels a little underwhelming, if you know what I mean, because you kind of do your lap and then you just sort of sit around for a little bit.

“I think we’re all working out how it works and how to get the best out of it. I’m sure we’ll work it out as the season goes on, but I like the old format.

“But at the same time, I’m acutely aware that we’ve got to try and do something new to try and mix it up.”