Hyundai's Ingram charges to first win of BTCC Hybrid era

EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai driver Tom Ingram has won the first race of the British Touring Car Championship's Hybrid era following a sensational battle with BMW duo Colin Turkington and Jake Hill at the Donington Park opener.

Ingram started the first race of the 2022 campaign from fourth but took full advantage of what proved to be a pulsating first couple of laps of the BTCC's Hybrid era after the Hyundai i30N driver charged past the battling BMWs of Turkington and Hill on lap two of the race.

Having made a lightning getaway from the line, four-time champion Turkington snatched the lead away from his pole-sitting West Surrey Racing stablemate Hill as the field plunged downhill from Redgate corner.

However, Hill didn't take the news lying down and quickly made a play to regain the lead back from Turkington.

In doing so, after spending the majority of the second lap side-by-side his BMW team mate, Ingram and reigning champion Ash Sutton latched onto the BMWs as they tripped over themselves.

A clever exit from McLeans corner allowed Ingram to scythe past both of the BMWs on the inside of Coppice, with Hill coming off worse after the pole-sitter left himself high and dry on the outside of Turkington.

Turkington eventually managed to slot himself into second behind the new race leader Ingram, but Hill dropped to fifth behind Sutton and rookie sensation George Gamble.

Ricky Collard's premature stoppage on the main straight neutralised the race and triggered a brief safety car phase, but Ingram managed to control the race from the restart on lap seven ahead of Team BMW's Turkington.

Hill did manage to fight his way back to third after repassing Gamble and Sutton, but the ROKiT MB Motorsport driver had no answer for Turkington and Ingram, despite setting the fastest lap of the race.

Ingram crossed the line 0.6s ahead of Turkington and Hill, while three-time champion Gordon Shedden fought his way up to fourth with defending champion Sutton failing behind in fifth.

Despite being outpaced his rookie team mate so far this weekend, Morgan got the better of Gamble in race conditions with the pair finishing lying astern in sixth and seventh.

Stephen Jelley was the fifth and final BMW to make the top-ten order in eighth.

Rich Energy BTC Racing's Jason Plato looked on course to secure a solid ninth place finish on his debut with the team, however, a cruel last-lap puncture relegated the two-time champion down to a 22nd place finish.

His BTC Honda team mate Josh Cook and Dan Rowbottom were the first to profit from Plato's race one demise to complete the top-ten in ninth and tenth.