Ingram whizzed his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N around the Leicestershire parkland venue in 1m08.792s during the early-morning 40-minute session.
That was just below the qualifying lap record despite the 70kg increase in base weight of the cars due to the implementation of the new hybrid systems, and put him on top of the times by a massive 0.368 seconds.
Ingram also set a 1m09.154s that was quicker than the best anyone else could manage, which was the 1m09.160s of BTCC returnee Dan Cammish at the wheel of the lead Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.
“The car felt absolutely fantastic,” smiled Ingram of his FP1 effort. “It was nice to get out of the car and say, ‘What do we need to improve?’, and, ‘Well, it’s not a lot.’
“The balance was nice, but there’s always more to come and I expect we’ll see lap times in the mid-1m08s in qualifying.”
Ingram went for a set-up change in the second session, in which he was sixth: “We just wanted to try something we’ve wanted to try for a while and get the chance to have a crack at it, but we’ll go back to what we had for qualifying.”
Cammish headed reigning champion Ash Sutton in a 2-3 for the NAPA-liveried Motorbase Fords in the first session; Sutton later went quickest in the lunchtime period, but with a lap 0.007s slower than he had managed in the morning.
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The leading BMW 330e M Sport was the Ciceley Motorsport car of Adam Morgan, who was in fourth position in the morning.
Runner-up in the second session, and boosting him to fifth overall across the 80 minutes of free practice, was an impressive effort for Ricky Collard, who is embarking on his first full BTCC season with the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla team.
Next up were two more drivers who set their best times in the opening period – Dan Lloyd with the second of the Excelr8 Hyundais, and Jake Hill in the best of the West Surrey Racing-run BMWs.
Gordon Shedden went third in the second session with his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, just ahead of the WSR BMWs of Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley, and this trio rounded out the top 10 overall.
George Gamble was comfortably in the top 10 early on, in seventh place, for his BTCC debut at the Ciceley BMW squad, but fell just outside overall thanks to those late improvers.
Free practice was a disaster for Josh Cook with his BTC Racing Honda – he coasted to a halt on his out-lap in FP1 due to installation issues resulting from an overnight engine change, then smacked into a tyre stack at the chicane while avoiding another car, causing damage to the Civic.
The team got the car repaired for FP2, in which Cook failed to complete a flying lap.
Team-mate Jade Edwards caused the second of the two red flags in FP2 thanks to an off at Redgate.
BTCC Donington Park - FP2 results
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ashley Sutton | 21 | 1'09.176 | |
| 2 | Ricky Collard | 15 | 1'09.229 | 0.053 |
| 3 | Gordon Shedden | 15 | 1'09.315 | 0.139 |
| 4 | Colin Turkington | 20 | 1'09.324 | 0.148 |
| 5 | Stephen Jelley | 16 | 1'09.383 | 0.207 |
| 6 | Tom Ingram | 15 | 1'09.433 | 0.257 |
| 7 | Daniel Lloyd | 18 | 1'09.480 | 0.304 |
| 8 | Dan Cammish | 18 | 1'09.524 | 0.348 |
| 9 | Adam Morgan | 18 | 1'09.531 | 0.355 |
| 10 | Rory Butcher | 16 | 1'09.536 | 0.360 |
| 11 | Michael Crees | 14 | 1'09.575 | 0.399 |
| 12 | Jason Plato | 16 | 1'09.620 | 0.444 |
| 13 | George Gamble | 16 | 1'09.625 | 0.449 |
| 14 | Daniel Rowbottom | 12 | 1'09.634 | 0.458 |
| 15 | Jake Hill | 10 | 1'09.692 | 0.516 |
| 16 |  Aron Taylor-Smith | 18 | 1'09.865 | 0.689 |
| 17 | Jade Edwards | 13 | 1'09.866 | 0.690 |
| 18 | Tom Chilton | 14 | 1'09.874 | 0.698 |
| 19 | Bobby Thompson | 11 | 1'09.969 | 0.793 |
| 20 | Ollie Jackson | 19 | 1'09.971 | 0.795 |
| 21 | Dexter Patterson | 15 | 1'10.481 | 1.305 |
| 22 | Sam Osborne | 18 | 1'10.535 | 1.359 |
| 23 | Ash Hand | 15 | 1'10.637 | 1.461 |
| 24 | Aiden Moffat | 10 | 1'10.653 | 1.477 |
| 25 |  Jack Butel | 15 | 1'11.095 | 1.919 |
| 26 | Rick Parfitt Jr. | 12 | 1'12.426 | 3.250 |
| 27 | Nicolas Hamilton | 10 | 1'12.841 | 3.665 |
| 28 | Josh Cook | 2 | ||
| View full results | ||||
BTCC Donington Park - FP1 results
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Ingram | 19 | 1'08.792 | |
| 2 | Dan Cammish | 16 | 1'09.160 | 0.368 |
| 3 | Ashley Sutton | 19 | 1'09.169 | 0.377 |
| 4 | Adam Morgan | 18 | 1'09.193 | 0.401 |
| 5 | Daniel Lloyd | 21 | 1'09.233 | 0.441 |
| 6 | Jake Hill | 21 | 1'09.315 | 0.523 |
| 7 | George Gamble | 19 | 1'09.395 | 0.603 |
| 8 | Gordon Shedden | 19 | 1'09.419 | 0.627 |
| 9 | Rory Butcher | 17 | 1'09.428 | 0.636 |
| 10 | Stephen Jelley | 24 | 1'09.480 | 0.688 |
| 11 | Colin Turkington | 22 | 1'09.483 | 0.691 |
| 12 | Jason Plato | 12 | 1'09.537 | 0.745 |
| 13 | Ollie Jackson | 18 | 1'09.826 | 1.034 |
| 14 | Aron Taylor-Smith | 19 | 1'09.871 | 1.079 |
| 15 | Michael Crees | 18 | 1'09.975 | 1.183 |
| 16 | Ricky Collard | 19 | 1'10.017 | 1.225 |
| 17 | Josh Cook | 11 | 1'10.020 | 1.228 |
| 18 | Bobby Thompson | 17 | 1'10.055 | 1.263 |
| 19 | Jade Edwards | 19 | 1'10.164 | 1.372 |
| 20 | Aiden Moffat | 21 | 1'10.198 | 1.406 |
| 21 | Ash Hand | 16 | 1'10.280 | 1.488 |
| 22 | Sam Osborne | 21 | 1'10.303 | 1.511 |
| 23 | Dexter Patterson | 20 | 1'10.355 | 1.563 |
| 24 | Tom Chilton | 15 | 1'10.417 | 1.625 |
| 25 | Nicolas Hamilton | 24 | 1'10.743 | 1.951 |
| 26 | Daniel Rowbottom | 12 | 1'11.106 | 2.314 |
| 27 | Jack Butel | 18 | 1'11.307 | 2.515 |
| 28 | Rick Parfitt Jr. | 19 | 1'11.875 | 3.083 |
| View full results | ||||
