Ingram: We’re on a real crest of a wave

British Touring Car Championship leader Tom Ingram says he and his Speedworks Motorsport are currently 'on a real crest of a wave' after further extending their championship lead in the drivers' standings at Donington Park.

The Toyota Avensis driver became the first repeat winner of the 2018 season after taking his eighth BTCC victory from 13th on the grid during race two.

In a near carbon copy of Brands Hatch, Ingram once again had to recover from an indifferent qualifying performance, which left the current points leader down in 16th ahead of the opening race.

Ingram believes the burden of carrying 75 kilos of success ballast suppressed the performance of his Toyota by around 0.8s, but still managed to stretch his championship lead to seven points ahead of Adam Morgan by the end of the weekend.

"It was a very difficult qualifying for us. It was a very difficult Saturday for us. We didn’t have the pace but I think a lot of it was the weight," Ingram told Crash.net.

"Having seen how much of a difference the weight made during the races, I think it’s the weight that really affected us in qualifying.

"I reckon it’s up to 0.8s the weight has cost us. It’s a big difference. We were 0.9s off in qualifying so that’s made me feel a little bit better about our performance in qualifying.

"Saturday was annoying, but at the same time, we’ve recovered it very well on Sunday."

Having cleverly elected to get the prime tyre run out of the way during the opening race, Ingram - as virtue of his 13th place finish - was able to capitalise on that decision by storming back through the pack with no ballast to clinch his second win of the year ahead of Chris Smiley.

Incidentally, both of Ingram's wins this year have come from outside of the top-ten order.

"We took the hard in race one, which was difficult. The hard and the weight was always going to make it difficult," Ingram continued.

"But it was more a case of damage limitation and getting rid of the weight and hard tyre so we could start fighting back in race two and race three, which is exactly what we did.

"We know we’ve got a fantastic car with no weight on. It’s exciting when we take the weight because I know it’s going to be good. You know the car is going to feel alive and racy!

"It’s exciting. It’s a good place to be at the minute. We’re on a real crest of a wave so let’s keep it going."