Tom Ingram fastest in gloomy FP1 at Oulton Park

Tom Ingram topped a tight FP1 at a gloomy Oulton Park, with the top 11 separated by less than a second.

Continuing his strong showing in the early stages of the season, Team BKR’s Aron Smith set the pace for the first half of the session, sitting atop the timing screens with a time of 1:26.299 in his Volkswagen CC.

Ingram, who has become known for his strong pace in practice sessions, waited until the final two minutes to put in a time less than a tenth faster than Smith, before beating his own time again on the following lap. His session-topping time was a 1:26.049, six tenths slower than the 2015 pole time.

Andrew Jordan in the Motorbase Ford Focus and Gordon Shedden’s Honda Civic Type-R were the closest to knocking Smith off the top spot before Ingram’s times, both posting laps within two tenths of the fastest lap, but had to settle for third and fourth respectively at the chequered flag.

Jack Goff in the West Surrey Racing BMW 125i M-Sport was fifth, ahead of Hunter Abbott’s Chevrolet Cruze. Dan Lloyd put in another impressive performance in his new Honda Civic Type-R, having joined the series at Thruxton, posting the seventh fastest time, ahead of Sam Tordoff in the second West Surrey Racing machine.

Triple Eight Racing’s Josh Cook set the ninth fastest time in his MG6, while Colin Turkington rounded out the top ten in the Team BMR Subaru Levorg.

Joint championship leaders Matt Neal and Rob Collard could only manage 12th and 18th respectively with full ballast, while the remaining updated Team BMR cars had to settle for 16th, 24th and 25th.