Donington Park BTCC: New works Toyota Corolla wins with Ingram

Ingram, the 2018 runner-up, was never headed as he claimed victory in front of 4500 Toyota employees.

He had lined up on pole for the partially reversed grid and, having used the optional hard tyres in race two, was one of only two soft-shod runners in the top 11.

A clean start meant he held his position into Redgate as Collard brought his Vauxhall Astra alongside front row starter Jake Hill, but the Audi S3 driver held on and was given respite when three of the four Team Hard cars were eliminated.

BTCC newcomers Carl Boardley and Michael Crees touched in their Volkswagen CCs and span across the grass and buried themselves into a tyre wall.

Meanwhile, their team-mate Jack Goff span across the front of Nicolas Hamilton's Motorbase Ford Focus RS, leaving Bobby Thompson as the Hard squad's only remaining driver.

It took six laps for the tyre wall to be repaired, before Ingram went defensive into the first corner and kept Hill behind on the restart.

Hill struggled on his tyres, meaning a strong run out of Coppice for Collard drew the Astra alongside and Collard promptly made his move for second under braking into the chicane.

Ingram stretched his gap to as much as 2.6 seconds before backing off in the closing stages to preserve the win for Speedworks, eventually crossing the line 1.092s ahead of Collard.

Points leader coming into this round, Josh Cook recovered well after a race one puncture and race two shunt to convert his third on the grid.

The damage limitation means he only drops to second in the points, three behind new championship leader Ashley Sutton.

The Team BMR driver finished fifth behind Rory Butcher's AmD Tuning Honda Civic Type R.

Hill dropped to sixth in the race, beating Collard's team-mate Jason Plato and an opportunistic Adam Morgan.

Having started 12th in his Mercedes A-Class, Ciceley Motorsport Morgan driver followed reigning champion Colin Turkington's progress past Tom Chilton and Dan Cammish to climb the order.

Victory in the opening races meant Turkington was carrying the maximum 54kg of success ballast. He lost out to Morgan in the dying stages and finished ninth.

That means Turkington sits third in the standings on 65 points, just five off Sutton, following a venue where he scored only six points last year.

Cammish rounded out the top 10 ahead of BTC Racing's Chis Smiley and pre-race points leader Chilton.

WSR driver Tom Oliphant moved from 17th to 13th, having lost out in race two following a collision with Cook.

Matt Neal, running on the harder type compound, dropped from ninth to 18th.

Race three result

Drivers' standings