After topping the opening practice session of the new season for the second year in a row, Tom Ingram admitted it was a good feeling to be quickest out of the blocks in the early stages.
Ingram, who clocked a time of 48.230 to go fastest ahead of Matt Neal (Honda) and Collard (BMW), spoke to TouringCars.net moments after the chequered flag fell on FP1 and, whilst pleased, also allured to the danger of getting carried away with a result at this point.
“It’s always nice to get ‘first blood’ and [be] quickest on the time sheets that everyone looks at.” Ingram smiled.
“It felt good, it felt really, really strong. It is only free practice one at the end of the day, there’s still a lot more that we need to worry about.”
The Toyota Avensis, which carries another brand-new livery for this campaign, ran a total of 27 laps across the forty minute session and also brought out the first red-flag stoppage of the season after coming to a halt on Cooper Straight. Ingram was able to get the car restarted and away on it’s own power, however, before storming to the head of the timesheets.
Looking ahead to the second practice session, which gets underway at 12:45, Ingram echoed the sentiments of Jack Goff in saying that the balance of his car was the primary focus.
“I think we’re going to try and refine the car a bit more. We made a load of changes in that one [FP1]; some of them worked well, some not so well. We just need to get a bit of a hold on getting a good balance in the car.”
You can follow TouringCars.net’s live coverage of FP2 from 12:30.