Tom Ingram set the pace during the opening British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Rockingham, going quickest for Speedworks Motorsport with a 1:22.995.
Ingram moved himself to the top of the timesheets around the halfway point of the session, displacing early pacesetter Adam Morgan in the Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes.
The best of the championship contenders was Ash Sutton, nearly four tenths off Ingram’s pace but still quick enough to end the session third fastest.
AmD Tuning had a strong showing in opening practice, with the Audi pair of Ant Whorton-Eales and Ollie Jackson going fifth and sixth quickest respectively. They were a little under sixth tenths off the pace set by Ingram, and half a tenth behind fourth-quickest Jack Goff.
Dave Newsham was seventh fastest in his BTC Norlin Racing Chevrolet Cruze, edging out the manufacturer cars of Josh Cook and Jason Plato by mere hundredths of a second. The top ten was rounded out by Rob Austin.
The title contenders aside from Sutton struggled to get immediately on the pace. Colin Turkington was the next best of the leading quartet in the championship race, thirteenth quickest and almost eight tenths slower than Ingram. Gordon Shedden was another two tenths behind in 22nd, while Rob Collard was the second slowest driver of all, 31st in the FP1 rankings.
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