DROITWICH-based Team Vertu began the 2026 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season with a double podium at Donington Park.
Reigning champion Tom Ingram and newly-signed driver Ricky Collard both stepped onto the podium in the final race of the opening weekend of the season.
Defending champion Ingram endured a frustrating start to his title defence with the driver disqualified from the first race.
Ingram thought he had made the perfect start to the season when crossing the line in first place.
However, Ingram received a post-race disqualification with his car deemed to have a significant overboost.
That meant Tom Chilton’s ninth-place finish proved the Droitwich team’s highest finish in race one with Nicolas Hamilton 17th while Collard suffered a DNF.
Collard recovered to finish eighth in race two with Chilton further back in 13th place in another difficult race for the team.
Both Ingram and Hamilton did not start the race with the former’s car suffering from an alternator failure.
However, Ingram showed his champion mentality to finish second in the final race of the weekend to secure a first podium finish of the season.
Ingram finished on the podium despite starting the race from the very back of the grid while Collard crossed the line just behind in third place.
Further down the track, Hamilton finished 18th while Chilton suffered a DNF.
Team Vertu team owner, Justina Williams said: “We have mixed emotions after the opening round as we know we could have had more points on the board, but we’ve also shown that we have a strong car and driver line-up with the result of the final race of the weekend.
“As a team, we need to take the positives from the opening rounds and come out fighting at Brands Hatch.”
The BTCC season continues at Brands Hatch on the weekend of May 9 and 10.
