Tom Ingram topped the timesheets in the second British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Rockingham, leading on from his table-topping performance in the morning practice session.
Ingram was three tenths slower than his best time in the morning session, unable to break into the 1:22s as he had earlier in the day, though was still able to edge out the Eurotech Honda of Jack Goff for the quickest time by a tenth of a second.
“So far we can be really pleased with how it’s gone with topping FP1 and FP2,” Ingram told TOCA Radio. “We know we’re still quite a way away from where we were last year. We were the best part of 3-4 tenths off Free Practice 1 [time], so the track seems to have taken a step back.
“For us around here it’s all about managing tyres as it’s such a hard place on tyres. We all know it’s just a case of nursing the tyre, which from the driver’s point of view makes it quite difficult.”
Ten minutes into the session, the red flag came out after Stewart Lines ran wide and found himself stuck in the gravel at Chapman Curves. After a short delay to clear the stranded Ford Focus, times started to tumble, with Gordon Shedden initially setting the pace when the session resumed before Ingram set what would ultimately be the quickest lap of the session a few minutes laeter.
The second factory Honda of Matt Neal was four hundredths off team-mate Shedden’s pace in fourth, with Mat Jackson rounding out the top five in the Motorbase Ford Focus.
Ant Whorton-Eales followed up his impressive fifth fastest time in the first practice session with the seventh quickest time in the afternoon practice session, just behind Aiden Moffat in sixth.
It was a strong showing for both Mercedes A-Classes in the field, as Moffat was joined in the top ten by Adam Morgan in eighth, the Ciceley Motorsport driver having gone second fastest in the morning session earlier. The Subaru pair of Jason Plato and Josh Price rounded out the top ten.
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