Points leader Ingram sets pace in opening Brands practice

Early British Touring Car Championship points leader Tom Ingram has picked up from where he left off at Donington Park by topping the opening practice session of the weekend ahead of BMW driver Adam Morgan at Brands Hatch.

The EXCELR8 Motorsport driver comes into the second weekend of the 2022 BTCC season as the championship leader following a convincing display last time out at Donington Park, which included a commanding race one victory.

Keen to press on from his promising start, Ingram produced a blistering lap (48.089) during the opening 40-minute session, which was only a whisker off his own qualifying lap record set during the 2016 season.

Car Gods Racing's Adam Morgan was second fastest, just 0.028s off Ingram's fastest time. As ever, the times proved to be closely packed around the Indy layout of the Brands Hatch circuit, with the top-25 cars covered by little over a second.

Despite lapping marginally slower than Morgan's Ciceley Motorsport prepared BMW 330e M Sport machine, Stephen Jelley emerged from opening practice as the quickest factory Team BMW runner after setting the third quickest time ahead of late improver Gordon Shedden in fourth.

BTC Racing's Josh Cook completed the top-five order aboard his Honda Civic Type-R, ahead of ROKiT MB Motorsport's Jake Hill in sixth.

Four-time champion Colin Turkington was just a further 0.013s behind his West Surrey Racing stablemate in seventh, while two-time champion Jason Plato made a significant move up the order during his final run to finish FP1 in a strong eighth.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher and Power Maxed Racing's Ash Hand completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth.

Reigning three-time champion Ash Sutton was 16th fastest for the Motorbase NAPA Racing UK Ford squad.