TOM Ingram set a new lap record on his way to two podium finishes in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at Brands Hatch.
Ingram finished third in race one and secured another podium finish in race three after finishing 11th in race two.
The Coventry driver has now achieved five podium finishes from six races in the BTCC this season.
And he also broke the Brands Hatch Indy circuit lap record in the third and final race of the weekend.
However, the weekend almost started in disastrous fashion for the Team VERTU driver following a misunderstanding as he entered the pit-lane in qualifying.
Ingram said: “That was another very strong weekend, all-in-all. The car felt phenomenal throughout – doing everything I asked of it and an absolute pleasure to drive – although I almost got us knocked out of qualifying in Q1.
“The red flags came out just as I was going into the final corner, so by the time I’d made sure there was no-one else near me, slowed down, cut across to the pit-lane, turned my headlights off and turned my pit-lane speed-limiter on, there were red flashing lights all around the circuit and I didn’t see the tiny red light that tells you to go onto the scales.
“Fortunately, we regrouped and got through, but I messed up again at the end of Q3. I was the best part of three tenths-of-a-second up when I tried to deploy turbo boost too early and inadvertently locked myself out of it. That cost us the front row of the grid or maybe even pole, but fourth place still put us in the mix for race day.
“With the hot weather, I think we were all conscious of taking it a little bit more steadily than usual on the soft tyres in race one, to ensure we got to the end.
“Their extra boost was always going to play into Jake [Hill] and Charles [Rainford]’s hands, and Charles drove extremely well and didn’t give me any real opportunity to stick my nose in, so I was happy to settle for third and another solid points haul.
“In race two, we got swamped by other cars around us on softs, but the Hyundai still felt good on the hard tyres, which was very encouraging. Then in race three, with more turbo boost in-hand, we knew we could be a bit more strategic, and Jake and I had a good battle over the last couple of laps.
“I used my additional boost to catch up and try to attack, but he never gave me the option to go to the inside, so I had to try the outside and with neither of us willing to give an inch, it certainly got pretty close.
“Could we have had a shot at winning if we’d not lost so much time fighting through the pack early on? Possibly, but the bottom line is we’re still in a really good place – and I see no reason why that shouldn’t continue season-long.”
Ingram currently sits second in the drivers’ standings, five points behind early leader Ash Sutton.
The BTCC season continues at Snetterton on the weekend of May 24 and 25.
