Thomas Ingram Hill performed a strong recovery drive in race one at Snetterton, fighting from eighth on the grid to fourth.
The Fortec Motorsports driver had qualified third, but had to serve a five place grid penalty received at Silverstone, leaving him further down the grid. However, he recovered well to climb four places and finish fourth at the flag for the fifth time this season.
Ingram Hill was still not entirely satisfied though.
“I’m not as happy as I want to be,” he said. “P4 is still good but there was a podium on the line, and I made one or two mistakes that cost it. I’m still happy with the points I took away.”
The 17-year-old was on the tail of Douglas Motorsport’s Dayton Coulthard for much of the second half of the race but was unable to find a way past his compatriot. On the final lap, he ran wide on to the Bentley Straight, ending any hopes of a last-lap overtake.
“I followed him through [Williams] a couple of times and different things were costing us down the straight, so I had to try something different,” he explained. “I decided to keep it pinned and see what happens, but I ended up going off. I had such a big gap behind that if I didn’t try something different then I wasn’t trying hard enough.”
Prior to that, Ingram Hill had overtaken Elite Motorsport’s Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso for seventh on the opening lap, before beginning to battle with Fortec teammate Franciszek Cegielski for sixth.
He completed the move on lap two after a “good battle”, but not before inheriting a position when Douglas’ Conor Grant bounced wide at the first turn.
His final position was gained when championship contender Fred Green crawled into the pits.
“I got a bit lucky,” admitted Ingram Hill. “But I still made two good moves and even without that luck I think I could have gotten through.”
Tomorrow, Ingram Hill will start race two from third on the grid, and he is confident of being able to fight for the win.
“We had the fastest lap up to the point when O’Grady [took it] and consistently we were matching Coulthard or a bit better, even though he had new tyres. My pace looks really good for tomorrow and, even in practice, we showed really good race pace.”
Race two is scheduled to start at 09.10 tomorrow morning (Sunday).
