BTCC Donington: Ingram wins fight with Hill and Sutton

Ingram used his one available lap of hybrid to slice his way down the inside of long-time leader Hill at Redgate on the 14th lap of 18, and the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N was able to establish a small gap over the pair behind it, with Sutton’s NAPA-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST beating the West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Hill to second.

From third on the grid, Hill launched the rear-wheel-drive BMW off the line beautifully and was able to move over to cover poleman Ingram into Redgate.

Once into a rhythm, Hill was able to briefly set the fastest lap and even extended the advantage to over a second when Sutton used one of his two laps of hybrid to attempt to pass Ingram on the fifth lap – the Ford got down the inside at Schwantz Curve, but the Hyundai elbowed back in front at McLeans.

Over the middle of the race Hill’s rear tyres began to fade and the leading trio got together, before Ingram made his move.

Sutton immediately followed suit by bowling down the inside of Hill at the Old Hairpin. But, a lap and a half later, Hill got on the hybrid button and moved back ahead of Sutton into the chicane.

As they exited, now Sutton used the hybrid to surge back into second place at Redgate, the Ford squirming on the brakes.

This allowed Ingram to extend his margin at the front to just over a second, although Sutton trimmed it to 0.917s by the finish.

Jake Hill at Donington (Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography)

“What an absolutely perfect weekend,” said Ingram. “We couldn’t have asked for any more. It’s felt fantastic.

“It’s so hard to know whether to keep your powder dry with the hybrid and when to use it. We were discussing the permutations before the race, but sometimes it’s got to be a spur of the moment, middle-of-the-action thing.”

Josh Cook put in an excellent performance to bring the leading Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport home in fourth place.

A lock-up by Colin Turkington’s WSR BMW into McLeans on the opening lap allowed Cook to slip down the inside at Coppice for the place.

Turkington then came under attack from the Excelr8 Hyundai of Ronan Pearson, the young Scot continuing his superb weekend before he went off course exiting Coppice – he splashed through the lake alongside the back straight before rejoining after a quick visit to the pits to finish a lap down, although he set fastest lap.

Turkington now set off after Cook, but in turn Dan Cammish in his Alliance Ford was homing in on both of them. Cammish’s strenuous efforts to get past Turkington allowed Cook’s Toyota to pull a small margin by the finish.

Adam Morgan (WSR BMW) finished seventh ahead of the Speedworks Toyotas of Aiden Moffat and Rob Huff, with the 2012 World Touring Car champion drawn on reversed-grid pole. Completing the top 10 was the Alliance Ford of Dan Rowbottom.

BTCC Donington Race Two Results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	18	21'03.154				20
2	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	18	0.917				17
3	J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	18	1.854	0.937			15
4	J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	5.725	3.871			13
5	C. Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	18	6.775	1.050			11
6	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	18	8.378	1.603			10
7	A. Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	18	9.004	0.626			9
8	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	11.653	2.649			8
9	R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	12.697	1.044			7
10	D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	18	13.294	0.597			6
11	A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	18	17.117	3.823			5
12	A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	18.033	0.916			4
13	M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	18	18.534	0.501			3
14	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Cupra León	18	22.870	4.336			2
15	D. De Unlimited Motorsport			Cupra León	18	25.938	3.068			1
16	N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	18	1'01.824	35.886
17	R. Pearson Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	17	1 lap
dnf	S. Sumpton Restart Racing			Cupra León	12	6 laps			Retirement
dnf	T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	11	7 laps			Retirement
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