Tom Ingram has doubled up by topping both Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Free Practice sessions at Brands Hatch.
The Toyota star set the pace earlier this morning, but the 23-year-old improved his time by 0.006s in the second 40-minute run. Ingram waited until the closing minutes to complete the lap in this particular session, firing out a warning to his rivals in the process.
“I’m piling the pressure on myself here, aren’t I!" said Ingram. "We spent a lot of that session playing around with the balance of the car and we are still a couple of tenths away from our pole-setting pace last year, so there is a fairly big chunk to come – we’ve by no means given everything we’ve got. I’m sure some people will have been running with a fair bit of weight on-board in FP2, so it will be interesting to see where everybody else is in qualifying in terms of out-and-out pace.”
Eurotech's Jack Goff led the way for much of the running before Adam Morgan's Ciceley Mercedes took over at the top. The Mac Tools-backed A-Class looked to have clinched bragging rights until Ingram's late lap, but Morgan was still pretty happy with second place.
"We’ve brought in a new engineer team during the off-season and they have done a magnificent job with the car," commented Morgan. "It just feels so nice to drive and it’s always good to be up at the sharp end. A few people probably haven’t done a qualifying sim yet, but we’re working on our own strategy and we’re happy where we are.
"It’s busy out there and getting a clean lap will be critical – fingers crossed we’ll be in the right place at the right time come qualifying."
Goff held on to third from triple-champion Matt Neal, with Halfords Yuasa Racing maintaining its usual steady progress throughout both practice sessions.
Rob Austin and Colin Turkington backed up their top ten pace from the first session by taking fifth and sixth respectively in the second run. The Handy Motorsport Toyota of Austin enjoyed good form in the latter half of the 2o16 season, as well as a promising pre-season this time around, whilst Colin Turkington's return to BMW is ominously building momentum.
Jeff Smith produced a stellar lap to claim seventh – making it two Eurotech Hondas in the top ten – whilst Aron Taylor-Smith has settled into his new MG surroundings well with eighth. Young Senna Proctor starred in ninth for Vauxhall, ahead of 2013 Champion Andrew Jordan.
A number of the big guns failed to show their hand, with Adrian Flux Subaru Racing in particular enduring a tough session. With the top 28-cars being covered by less than 0.9s the quartet of Subarus could only manage 28th, 29th, 31st and 32nd in the order.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Free Practice Two – Brands Hatch (Indy):
1 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport 48.158s (90.29 mph)
2 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +0.086s
3 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.091s
4 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.165s
5 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.260s
6 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.301s
7 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.341s
8 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.354s
9 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.366s
10 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +0.373s
11 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.382s
12 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.401s
13 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.411s
14 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +0.434s
15 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +0.436s
16 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.508s
17 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat with Duo +0.529s
18 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.564s
19 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.592s
20 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +0.594s
21 Josh COOK (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +0.690s
22 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +0.718s
23 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.724s
24 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +0.739s
25 Luke DAVENPORT (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.819s
26 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +0.847s
27 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.868s
28 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.888s
29 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.072s
30 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1.097s
31 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.290s
32 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +2.277s
