Pre-weekend points leader Ash Sutton was beaten by Jake Hill in the fight for third, meaning they are respectively three and six points adrift of Ingram, while Colin Turkington kept himself just in the title hunt with a tenacious drive from 10th to fifth.
While the racing was manic from third place down, it was something of a non-event at the front, thanks in part to extremely lengthy recovery processes during two early safety-car periods – fewer than three and a half laps of racing had been completed by the time it went green for a seven-lap sprint to the finish.
Ingram got the jump from pole position to put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N into the lead ahead of fellow front-row starter, Rory Butcher’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla.
The race went under safety car on the second lap, and Ingram appeared to catch Butcher napping at the restart, with the Scot seeming to do the same to third-placed Sutton.
Butcher was closer on the second restart and Ingram was never able to shake the Toyota from his mirrors, finishing 0.581 seconds clear.
“It again felt good,” said Ingram. “I was happy to let Rory be there. I didn’t want to take any risks, and I was happy to drive it round and play it safe.
“This puts us in the best place we can possibly ask for going into race two. I can breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that the really stressful part of it… if the first race goes wrong, then you’re really on the recovery.”
The action behind kicked off from the start, with Hill attempting to insert his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport between the two second-row-starting Motorbase Performance Ford Focuses of Sutton and Cammish.
Hill got pincered and made contact with Sutton, delaying his progress, and the BMW driver only secured fourth place when Cammish ran wide at Druids and lost two positions.
Once the race got going properly, Hill got on Sutton’s case, but the reigning three-time champion seemed to catch Hill out on the brakes into Druids – minor contact was made again and Bobby Thompson took advantage to move into fourth place in his Team Hard Cupra Leon.
Hill made a superb repass on Thompson at Sheene Curve and caught up Sutton again, but an audacious move at Druids promoted the Cupra back into fourth, before a nudge from Hill at Graham Hill Bend sent Thompson wide, delayed Hill and allowed the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan up to fourth.
Hill wasted little time getting ahead of Morgan next time round at Druids, then yet again closed the gap to Sutton, who was struggling hugely for race pace.
The move came on the 16th lap of 18 – Hill forced Sutton to defend at Hawthorn which cost the Ford driver momentum through Westfield too, and Hill once again made an incisive move at Sheene.
Such was Sutton’s lack of pace that, once Hill was up to third, he was seven seconds adrift of the leading pair.
The WSR BMW of Turkington was also embroiled in this battle – he moved ahead of Morgan in the wake of the Hill/Sutton war on the 16th lap, and only just pipped by Sutton for fourth as he drew alongside on the run to the chequered flag.
Behind sixth-placed Morgan, Thompson clinched the Jack Sears Trophy title in seventh, with George Gamble’s Ciceley BMW eighth and Cammish ninth. The third WSR BMW of Stephen Jelley nabbed the final top-10 spot off Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R) on the final lap.
BTCC Brands Hatch race one result - 18 laps
| Cla | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tom Ingram |
32'40.611 | |
| 2 | Rory Butcher |
32'41.192 | 0.581 |
| 3 | Jake Hill |
32'49.255 | 8.644 |
| 4 | Ashley Sutton |
32'51.019 | 10.408 |
| 5 | Colin Turkington |
32'51.135 | 10.524 |
| 6 | Adam Morgan |
32'51.390 | 10.779 |
| 7 | Bobby Thompson | 32'51.801 | 11.190 |
| 8 | George Gamble | 32'52.115 | 11.504 |
| 9 | Dan Cammish |
32'52.870 | 12.259 |
| 10 | Stephen Jelley |
32'53.339 | 12.728 |
| 11 | Josh Cook |
32'53.406 | 12.795 |
| 12 | Daniel Rowbottom |
32'53.810 | 13.199 |
| 13 | Daniel Lloyd |
32'54.301 | 13.690 |
| 14 | Ricky Collard |
32'54.585 | 13.974 |
| 15 | Aiden Moffat |
32'55.375 | 14.764 |
| 16 | Tom Chilton |
32'57.651 | 17.040 |
| 17 | Jason Plato |
32'58.099 | 17.488 |
| 18 | Ash Hand |
32'59.845 | 19.234 |
| 19 |  Jack Butel |
33'00.670 | 20.059 |
| 20 | Michael Crees | 33'05.213 | 24.602 |
| 21 | Nicolas Hamilton | 33'06.120 | 25.509 |
| 22 | Jade Edwards | 33'06.910 | 2 Laps |
| Sam Osborne |
29'55.734 | 2 Laps | |
| Ollie Jackson |
26'46.438 | 4 Laps | |
| Dexter Patterson | 26'46.542 | 4 Laps | |
| Gordon Shedden |
25'13.422 | 5 Laps | |
| Rick Parfitt Jr. | 12'10.147 | 12 Laps | |
| Carl Boardley |
12'10.959 | 12 Laps | |
 Aron Taylor-Smith |
18 Laps | ||
| View full results | |||
