Tom Ingram held off British Touring Car Championship title rival Jake Hill to take victory in a wet opening race of the day at Silverstone.
2022 champion Ingram led from pole to the finish in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback but had to fend off a concerted challenge from the Laser Tools-liveried West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Hill, who had started from fifth on the grid.
Hill immediately jumped the slow-starting Dan Cammish at the getaway, then rounded Josh Cook at Copse Corner to grab third place behind the sister WSR BMW of Colin Turkington, who is entertaining his own hopes of a fifth BTCC crown.
Turkington had no answer to the pace of Ingram, who was three and a half seconds in front by the seventh of 22 laps, and on lap eight he left the door wide open for Hill to cruise around the outside of him into the Brooklands left-hander.
Hill now began his charge, and with five laps remaining had brought the gap below a second. Two laps later he was right on Ingram’s rear bumper and tried to get past into Brooklands, the two cars inches from contact as the BMW’s rear wheels locked.
But Ingram had been canny with his hybrid allocation - with two laps remaining Hill had used all his up, and Ingram took the flag 0.641 seconds in front.
Hill, instead, had to defend a resurgent Cammish, who had dropped to seventh at the start in his Valvoline-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST before sweeping around the outside of Adam Morgan and Dan Rowbottom at Becketts for fifth.
Cammish then got into a fierce battle for fourth with the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Cook, before the sister Ford of Dan Rowbottom joined the party.
Cammish had been on the wrong side of a couple of moves and had dropped to sixth when Rowbottom nerfed Cook wide at Becketts, the former forced to retire the Focus due to the damage and Cook dropping to eighth.
