Ingram tops opening practice as BTCC Hybrid era begins

EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai driver Tom Ingram makes history by becoming the first practice pacesetter in the British Touring Car Championship's new Hybrid era at the season opening Donington Park round.

Ingram set the pace in the first practice session of the new season by setting a blistering lap towards the end of the 40-minute running, pipping BTCC returnee Dan Cammish in the process.

The Hyundai i30N driver's 1min 08.792s lap obliterated Gordon Shedden's lap record from last season, signalling a significant step forward in performance with the BTCC's brand new Hybrid system.

With FP1 marking the Cosworth developed Hybrid system's first race weekend appearance, the 28-car field experimented with how and when to deploy the 15-seconds of hybrid power they're allocated for each lap.

Motorbase Performance duo Dan Cammish and reigning three-time champion Ash Sutton initially hit the ground running before Ingram usurped the pair of the Ford Focus STs at the end of the session.

Ciceley Motorsport's Adam Morgan ended FP1 as the highest placed BMW runner in fourth ahead of Dan Lloyd, who impressed on his Hyundai debut in fifth position.

ROKiT MB Motorsport's Jake Hill was another driver to catch the eye on his debut in brand new BMW machinery after he set the sixth quickest time as the top BMW factory runner.

BTCC rookie George Gamble arguably produced one of the performances of the session by producing a lap good enough for seventh fastest in what was his first practice running in the series aboard the Car Gods backed BMW 330e M Sport.

Former three-time champion Gordon Shedden made late gains to set the eighth fastest time for the Team Dynamics Honda squad, while Toyota's Rory Butcher and Team BMW's Stephen Jelley rounded out the top-ten.

Four-time champion Colin Turkington and 97-time BTCC race winner Jason Plato narrowly missed out on the top-ten in eleventh and twelfth.