Tom Ingram tops the times as BTCC returns to Donington GP

Tom Ingram led the way for Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 as the BTCC field hit the track at Donington Park for the annual mid-season Goodyear tyre test.

The day of running marked the first time that the series had run on the full Grand Prix layout since 2002, with round eight of the campaign in August taking place at the East Midlands circuit.

Ingram’s quickest time at the wheel of his Hyundai i30 Fastback N came during the afternoon running, which was the case for 21 of the 22 drivers in action.

A time of 1:33.197s was half a second quicker than team-mate Tom Chilton managed in pacing the morning session and allowed him to edge out the Vauxhall of Aron Taylor-Smith by 0.064s.

“It’s been a good day and we’ve got loads done, especially with tweaking and finding little bits and pieces to improve,” Ingram said.

“It’s always nice to get back in the car and get refreshed before Croft in a couple of weeks”

Taylor-Smith’s afternoon lap saw him go noticeably quicker than during the morning, when the Power Maxed Racing driver had lapped 16th on the timesheets.

Ricky Collard’s Toyota then rounded out the top three, ahead of the BMW of Colin Turkington, which would prove to be the quickest rear-wheel drive car in both sessions.

Current points leader Ash Sutton slotted into fifth spot at the wheel of his Ford Focus, with Jake Hill taking sixth despite losing most of the morning session when he stopped on track with a fluid leak.

Morning pace-setter Chilton – the only driver on the grid to have raced in the BTCC on the GP layout in the past – took seventh, with Dan Rowbottom, Adam Morgan and Andrew Watson rounding out the top ten.

Two rookies joined 20 series regulars for the test, with Daryl DeLeon and Nathan Harrison both in action for Team HARD.

DeLeon in particular showed impressive speed at the wheel of his Cupra Leon to lap eighth quickest during the morning session and only missed out on a top ten slot on the combined times by 0.038s in the afternoon.

Harrison meanwhile was the only driver to set his best time in the morning as he completed nearly 100 laps – the most of any driver present.

One Motorsport elected not to take part in the test.