Brands Hatch BTCC: Ingram leads Neal in opening practice session

The 21-year-old made a late jump up the order after timing his final runs to perfection in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis, and eventually ended up half a second clear of Matt Neal in Honda's new Civic Type-R.

Light rain meant a damp track at the start of the session and though it gradually dried out, the pace remained over two seconds off last year's qualifying times.

Double champion Jason Plato was first to hit the front with a representative effort, setting a 52.976s in his Team BMR Volkswagen CC around the halfway mark, before his rivals improved.

Ingram leapt to the top of the timing screens on a 51.945s, before lowering that twice to end the session quickest as a number of other drivers vaulted up the order.

After a manic end to the session, Power Maxed Racing's Josh Cook ended up third quickest, ahead of Rob Collard's WSR BMW, Dave Newsham in the second PMR Chevrolet Cruze and three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx.

Aron Smith ended up the lead BMR driver in seventh ahead of team boss Warren Scott, with Hunter Abbott (RAR Audi) and Simon Belcher (Handy Toyota) completing the top 10.

The changing conditions and jumbled order mean it is difficult to read too much into the times, with the likes of Plato falling to 11th, Colin Turkington 13th and new MG driver Andrew Jordan - who completed just six laps after a turbo problem - 20th and team-mate Jack Goff 23rd.

Gordon Shedden did not set a representative time in the second Honda and wound up slowest of the 26 runners, but he and Neal managed 47 laps between them for the Team Dynamics-run squad.

Infiniti's Q50, in the hands of Derek Palmer Jr this weekend with Richard Hawken sidelined by an incomplete second car, ran encouragingly despite only being shaken down on Wednesday.
The Support our Paras Racing machine completed 17 laps, with a best time of 59.110s leaving Palmer 24th fastest.

Only 26 cars took part in the first session. Andy Wilmot, whose Proton team-mate Dan Welch has already been ruled out of the weekend by a broken foot, did not appear.

PRACTICE 1 RESULTS: