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Tom Ingram leads opening BTCC practice session at Brands Hatch

Speedworks Motorsport racer Tom Ingram topped the opening free practice session ahead of the British Touring Car Championship season opener at Brands Hatch

The Toyota Avensis driver, whose car had stopped on track earlier on in the 40-minute session with a rear hub problem, clocked 48.230-second lap to eclipse factory Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R driver Matt Neal by 0.08 seconds.

Last year's pole position time was a 48.411s lap, set by Andy Priaulx in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport.

"We were playing around with the set-up, and we put some things on the car that worked and some that didn't," said Ingram.

"I was pleasantly surprised with the laptime - it is the second year in a row that I have topped the first free practice session. That is a nice feeling."

Behind Neal was the WSR BMW 125i of Rob Collard.

Rookie Ash Sutton's MG was fourth, ahead of Sam Tordoff (WSR BMW 125i M Sport) and reigning champion Gordon Shedden (Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R).

The four new factory-backed Subaru Levorg cars struggled for outright pace given their limited running, having turned a wheel for the first time on Friday afternoon.

The fastest of them was double champion Colin Turkington, who was 17th, 0.9s behind Ingram, with James Cole's version 25th, while Jason Plato was 27th.

Team principal and driver Warren Scott's running was cut short by an oil leak and he was 31st and last after only completing seven laps.

The only car not to make the session was the Team Hard Toyota Avensis of Michael Epps, who had a problem with his car's power steering.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 48.230s - 27
2 Matt Neal Dynamics/Honda Honda 48.317s 0.087s 24
3 Rob Collard WSR BMW 48.345s 0.115s 23
4 Ash Sutton Triple Eight/MG MG 48.362s 0.132s 17
5 Sam Tordoff WSR BMW 48.371s 0.141s 26
6 Gordon Shedden Dynamics/Honda Honda 48.388s 0.158s 26
7 Jack Goff WSR BMW 48.507s 0.277s 28
8 Josh Cook Triple Eight/MG MG 48.541s 0.311s 26
9 Andrew Jordan Motorbase Performance Ford 48.578s 0.348s 29
10 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 48.595s 0.365s 28
11 Jeff Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 48.732s 0.502s 27
12 Mat Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 48.811s 0.581s 30
13 Rob Austin Handy Motorsport Toyota 48.911s 0.681s 24
14 Aron Taylor-Smith Team BKR Volkswagen 48.943s 0.713s 29
15 Jake Hill Team Hard Toyota 49.020s 0.790s 29
16 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 49.114s 0.884s 22
17 Colin Turkington Team BMR Subaru 49.133s 0.903s 25
18 Matt Simpson Speedworks Motorsport Honda 49.185s 0.955s 32
19 Andy Neate Dynamics/Honda Honda 49.279s 1.049s 26
20 Alex Martin Team Parker Racing Ford 49.319s 1.089s 32
21 Hunter Abbott Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet 49.339s 1.109s 20
22 Martin Depper Eurotech Racing Honda 49.359s 1.129s 26
23 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 49.400s 1.170s 27
24 Chris Smiley Team Hard Toyota 49.665s 1.435s 31
25 James Cole Team BMR Subaru 49.809s 1.579s 35
26 Stewart Lines Maximum Motorsport Ford 50.382s 2.152s 20
27 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 50.497s 2.267s 17
28 Mark Howard Team BKR Volkswagen 50.834s 2.604s 24
29 Kelvin Fletcher Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet 53.370s 5.140s 16
30 Daniel Welch Welch Motorsport Proton 1m00.125s 11.895s 6
31 Warren Scott Team BMR Subaru 1m00.712s 12.482s 7

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