Tom Ingram emerges from frantic opening laps to claim first win of the year

Tom Ingram won the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Donington Park, benefitting on the second lap when pole-sitter Jake Hill and BMW stablemate Colin Turkington squabbled over the lead.

At the start, Team BMW’s Turkington made the better start to lead ahead of Hill into the first corner, with all drivers unable to use the new hybrid system on the first tour.

The action spiced up on lap two when Hill threw his MB Motorsport 3-Series down the inside of Turkington at the Old Hairpin, but Turkington immediately fought back on the run up to McLeans.

The squabbling between the BMWs allowed the chasing pack to get in on the action as well, with Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in third throwing his Hyundai up the inside of the BMWs into Coppice to make it three abreast for the lead.

As the pack closed up, Hill found himself squeezed down to fifth come the chicane, with NAPA Racing’s Ash Sutton following Ingram and moving up to third by the end of the second lap.

Racing then had to be neutralised behind a safety car as the Toyota of Ricky collard had stopped on the start-finish straight, the Speedworks-run car sporting front-end damage after the first lap.

It took four laps to clear the Corolla out of the way and the racing resumed on lap seven, with Ingram pulling seven tenths clear on the first lap of the restarted race, again a lap without hybrid boost being available to drivers.

Thereafter, the Hyundai driver didn’t come under further pressure for the lead as he managed to maintain a gap of around half a second to Turkington for the rest of the race to claim bragging rights in the first race of the BTCC’s new hybrid era.

Turkington was second as the leading BMW, with Hill completing the podium in third. The MB Motorsport driver fought back past George Gamble’s BMW on the second lap after the restart, before he then passed Sutton’s Ford for the final podium place with a clean move exiting the old hairpin.

Hill looked as if he might not make it to the finish at one stage, after he clipped a tyre stack at the chicane and damaged the front-right corner of his car.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden claimed fourth, the Honda driver having passed Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan for sixth at the Old Hairpin on lap eight, followed by taking fifth from Morgan’s team-mate George Gamble a lap later when Gamble dropped two places.

Shedden then stole fourth from Sutton on lap 13 with a repeat manoeuvre at the Old Hairpin, leaving Sutton to finish in fifth as the Ford’s race pace appeared to fade later in the race.

Morgan claimed sixth, heading up a BMW trio ahead of team-mate Gamble in seventh and Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley in eighth.

The top ten was completed by the charging Josh Cook in ninth – up seven places from his grid position – and Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom in tenth.

Cooks’ BTC Racing team-mate Jason Plato had been running in tenth for much of the race, but he slowed on the final lap with a front-left puncture and only took the chequered flag in 22^nd.

With his NAPA Racing UK mechanics having worked until 03:00 to repair his car overnight following a dramatic qualifying fire, Dan Cammish came from the back of the grid to finish in 17^th at the end after a trying race for the Ford star.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	24:40.599	1:09.440	4
2	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	19	0.659	1:09.501	2
3	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	1.150	1:09.177	1
4	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	19	4.122	1:09.459	6
5	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	5.067	1:09.697	3
6	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	5.466	1:09.460	8
7	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	7.173	1:09.493	5
8	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	19	7.477	1:09.739	7
9	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	13.266	1:09.607	16
10	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	19	14.668	1:09.927	9
11	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	16.553	1:10.104	15
12	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	17.067	1:10.016	12
13	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	19	21.532	1:09.787	14
14	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	19	21.554	1:10.128	22
15	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	21.689	1:10.208	18
16	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	23.967	1:10.459	23
17	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	23.969	1:10.051	28
18	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	24.774	1:10.413	27
19	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	25.482	1:10.210	19
20	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	31.250	1:10.863	21
21	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	19	36.505	1:10.974	24
22	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	49.372	1:09.896	10
23	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	57.207	1:12.247	25
24	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	19	1:00.860	1:09.967	13
R	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	DNF	1:10.281	20
R	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	7	DNF	1:11.393	17
R	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	3	DNF	1:11.617	26
R	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	1	DNF	N/A	11