Team Toyota GB with Ginsters' star Tom Ingram claimed his third win of the 2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season after snatching the lead away from pole-sitter Jason Plato in the opening race at Silverstone.
The Vauxhall Astra of Plato dominated the early proceedings in greasy conditions, but the Toyota Corolla of Ingram soon had the double champion in his sights after seeing off the Hondas of Matt Neal and Chris Smiley during the first few tours of 1.67-mile National Circuit.
Plato and Ingram rubbed paintwork on lap four before last year's championship runner-up got the job done through Luffield to reignite his own title hopes.
"It was fantastic," said Ingram. "I'm really pleased. I love those conditions and I had plenty of practice back at Croft! What we've found with the Corolla is that on the faster circuits, it's just so, so good. We keep making such massive changes between events. We find things that really work and refine those. It's never going to be a five minute process.
"We knew it would come, it was a just a case of how long it'd take. We got a bit of an undercut on Jason (Plato) at Luffield and it was really tricky out there all the way through. There were bits where the car would start to rotate. You had to be mindful but as soon as I saw Jason run wide I had to go for it. He could have squeezed me more than he did so fair play to him."
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing's Plato held second until the finish, with BTC Racing's Smiley completing the podium.
"He didn't take the win off me, he was quicker," confirmed Plato. "We didn't have the pace in that race. A couple of key areas left us lacking. I couldn't get it right into Brooklands and it kept on biting me. He had a slightly better car all race through Luffield. He was better than me. I should be looking good on hard tyres in race two."
BTC Racing's Josh Cook was the first home among the main title contenders as he produced a great drive to take fourth, having started ninth on the grid. Cook made a number of impressive moves during the 22-lap race, confirming that his race pace his up there with the very best.
BMW Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan was the 'best of the rest' with regards to the main title protagonists, whilst Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish and Team BMW's Colin Turkington could only manage 11th and 14th respectively – the latter recovering well from a mid-race spin.
Turkington's standings lead had been further reduced to four points back to Jordan, whilst Cammish is just nine points off the championship summit.
The remaining top ten position in the race belonged to Tom Oliphant (fifth), Matt Neal (sixth), Mike Bushell (seventh), Adam Morgan (ninth) and Tom Chilton (tenth).
2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Round 25 – Silverstone
1 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Team Toyota GB with Ginsters 22 laps
2 Jason PLATO (GBR) Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing +4.312s
3 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Racing +7.554s
4 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +8.071s
5 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +13.265s
6 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +14.028s
7 Mike BUSHELL (GBR) Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance +16.886s
8 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport +23.676s
9 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +23.926s
10 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +23.987s
11 Dan CAMMISH (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +24.064s
12 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing +24.119s
13 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +24.384s
14 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +25.716s
15 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance +27.963s
16 Jake HILL (GBR) TradePriceCars.com +28.903s
17 Jack GOFF (GBR) RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport +29.617s
18 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher +30.127s
19 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +30.991s
20 Michael CAINE (GBR) Motorbase Performance +31.217s
21 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +34.709s
22 Rob SMITH (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +36.586s
23 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport +37.116s
24 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1 Lap
25 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1 Lap
26 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport +3 Laps
27 Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct +7 Laps
28 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker Racing +14 Laps
29 Michael CREES (GBR) GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct +14 Laps
30 Mark BLUNDELL (GBR) TradePriceCars.com +17 Laps
