Tom Ingram: ‘The car felt phenomenal throughout’

Tom Ingram enjoyed another strong weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, with the Team Vertu driver edging closer to the top of the drivers’ standings with two podium finishes.

The 2022 champion was on the pace from the off at the Kent circuit, fifth fastest in both practice sessions before putting his Hyundai in fourth on the grid in qualifying – despite having the second-least amount of TOCA Turbo Boost in the field.

Ingram almost lost out in qualifying when he had all of his times up to the red flag in Q1 removed for missing the weighbridge, although he was able to put in a lap quick enough to progress when the session resumed.

Passing team-mate Adam Morgan around the outside at the start of race one, Ingram ultimately settled for third behind the two pace-setting BMWs at the front.

That meant he would be one of only four drivers on the less favourable hard tyre for race two, as the top three finishers in race one must run the hardest tyre available.

Combined with limited turbo boost, Ingram ultimately slid to 11^th by the chequered flag.

Having missed out on the race three reverse-grid, Ingram lined up in 11^th on the grid but was up to seventh by the end of the opening lap.

Back on the soft rubber and with full turbo allocation, the 31-year-old then charged up to third by the end of the race, battling for second with Jake Hill in the closing laps, and posting a new race fastest lap record on the way.

“That was another very strong weekend, all-in-all,” said Ingram. “The car felt phenomenal throughout – doing everything I asked of it and an absolute pleasure to drive – although I almost got us knocked out of qualifying in Q1!

“The red flags came out just as I was going into the final corner, so by the time I’d made sure there was no-one else near me, slowed down, cut across to the pit-lane, turned my headlights off and turned my pit-lane speed-limiter on, there were red flashing lights all around the circuit and I didn’t see the tiny red light that tells you to go onto the scales…

“Fortunately, we regrouped and got through, but I messed up again at the end of Q3. I was the best part of three tenths-of-a-second up when I tried to deploy turbo boost too early and inadvertently locked myself out of it.

“That cost us the front row of the grid or maybe even pole, but fourth place still put us in the mix for race day.

“With the hot weather, I think we were all conscious of taking it a little bit more steadily than usual on the soft tyres in race one, to ensure we got to the end.

“Their extra boost was always going to play into Jake [Hill] and Charles [Rainford]’s hands, and Charles drove extremely well and didn’t give me any real opportunity to stick my nose in, so I was happy to settle for third and another solid points haul.

“In race two, we got swamped by other cars around us on softs, but the Hyundai still felt good on the hard tyres, which was very encouraging.

“Then in race three, with more turbo boost in-hand, we knew we could be a bit more strategic, and Jake and I had a good battle over the last couple of laps.

“I used my additional boost to catch up and try to attack, but he never gave me the option to go to the inside, so I had to try the outside and with neither of us willing to give an inch, it certainly got pretty close!

“Could we have had a shot at winning if we’d not lost so much time fighting through the pack early on? Possibly, but the bottom line is we’re still in a really good place – and I see no reason why that shouldn’t continue season-long.”