BTCC Brands Hatch GP: Moffat leads throughout to beat Ingram in qualifying race

Aiden Moffat led all the way from pole position to beat Tom Ingram to victory in the qualifying race for the British Touring Car Championship 2026 finale at Brands Hatch.

Moffat set two laps faster than anyone else’s best in qualifying with his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, while Josh Cook topped the other split to line up his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport in the other front-row position.

A fast-starting Ricky Collard, from fourth on the grid, got his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback ahead of Mikey Doble at the start, and then took his opportunity when Cook got into a “massive slide” at Paddock Hill Bend just after the start.

Collard claimed the inside line against Cook up the hill to Druids, and then contact from Ash Sutton behind sent the Toyota wide. Sutton’s attempt to give the place back to Cook allowed Tom Ingram to scamper through into third.

Ingram then got up the inside of Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Collard at Dingle Dell, so that he was now running second to Moffat – from fifth on the grid. But Ingram spent his Saturday on just three seconds per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost owing to his second position in the championship, while Moffat had the full 20s.

Even so, the gap between Moffat and Ingram only once went over a second, and the outgoing champion kept the Scot under pressure throughout. In turn, a vicious snap that carried Collard briefly into the gravel at Paddock on the third lap allowed Cook up to third, and the West Countryman was right on Ingram’s bumper by the end of the race, his Toyota on 9s per lap of TTB.

Tom Ingram, Team VERTU

Photo by: JEP

But neither of them could quite get the better of Moffat, who won by 0.504s. “The car’s been brilliant,” he said. “We were struggling a bit in free practice, but we made some changes and it’s just brilliant to drive.

“I knew I had the pace on the soft tyres, and I was quietly confident it would be good on the mediums in the race. I knew Tom didn’t have full boost, so I could control it. It was one of those nice races where I didn’t have to overdrive.”

Collard’s moment at Paddock promoted the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium of Sutton to fourth and Doble’s PMR Audi to fifth. Doble then got past Sutton, who had just 1s per lap of TTB, on the exit of Surtees to claim fourth.

Collard couldn’t quite find an opening on Sutton, but it didn’t matter because the newly crowned five-time champion earned a five-second penalty for track-limits offences. Because their battle allowed the cars behind to close up, this had a big effect on Sutton’s final position, and he was knocked back to 11th.

Collard was therefore classified fifth ahead of Daryl De Leon (West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport), Dan Rowbottom (CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon), Aron Taylor-Smith (Speedworks Toyota), Dexter Patterson (PMR Audi) and Dan Cammish (Alliance Ford).