Tom Ingram: “It’s great to be towards the pointy end”

Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram said he was happy to be “towards the pointy end” in only the second qualifying session for his new Toyota Corolla, after setting the sixth-best time in mixed conditions at Donington Park.

Ingram, who will be cheered on by more than 4,000 people from Toyota Manufacturing in Burnaston at the circuit today, set a time just over 0.8 seconds shy of Team BMW’s Colin Turkington to line up on the outside of the third row.

The 25-year-old said the lack of consistency in track conditions meant understanding the car’s behaviour was a challenge – and said it was easier to drive in the dry than the wet.

The 2018 runner-up said he was confident of making forward progress in the races.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Ingram said: “I’m really happy – we are well up the front where we want to be. We know we’re going to have a good car with the people we have around us, with Josh [Cook] on full ballast.

“We are more confident of the car in the dry than in the wet, just because we’ve done more with it in the dry and we understand it a little bit more. The wet is a little bit of an unknown for us because the only wet weather running we’ve done is in qualifying at Brands.

“We’re a little bit green with it, but we know we’ve got some big improvements to come in the car after qualifying, so we’re confident for the races. With the support we’re going to have with 4,500 people from Toyota, it is great to be towards the pointy end and look to go forwards rather than consolidate our position.”

Speaking about the challenges faced on qualifying day, Ingram added: “It’s been hard work. Every session has been totally different, so there’s not been any consistency in the conditions we’ve had.

“FP1 was really wet, FP2 was drying and then qualifying was a very green, dry, cold, greasy circuit. So we’ve not had any consistency in the conditions to find what we need and what we don’t need. It’s hard work, but all these changeable conditions are good for us because it means we can understand the car a little bit more.”