Andrew Jordan wins the opening round at Brands Hatch

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan led from lights to flag to take victory in the first race of the season at Brands Hatch, holding off a strong challenge from Jason Plato.

The Eurotech Racing driver survived a lurid slide through Paddock Hill on the first lap to hold his lead into Druids, and was able to maintain a gap to Triple Eight’s Plato over the 24 laps.

The two were separated by little over half a second at the end, and had drawn nearly 10 seconds clear of the battling Honda Racing Team duo of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden at the flag.

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington had run third on lap one, but was deposed by Neal at Clearways, before Shedden passed him at the same spot on lap 13, after a slight tap on the rear of his BMW 125i.

Turkington eventually dropped back to eighth with some damage to the side skirt of his car, after a hard-fought battle with team-mate Rob Collard, while Rob Austin rose to an impressive fifth from 11th on the grid in his Audi A4.

Collard was next, ahead of Aron Smith, with debutant Tom Ingram and Sam Tordoff completing the top 10.

It was a largely clean race, bar a handful of notable incidents. Series returnee Alain Menu had a huge moment at Paddock Hill on lap one, spinning into the infield after apparent contact. He pitted and lost three laps, finishing 28th.

Smith and Mat Jackson made contact at Clearways on lap three, causing the Motorbase Performance driver to drop back to 15th at the flag, just behind new team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi.

Jordan’s team-mate Martin Depper and James Cole of United Autosports also made contact, clashing at Druids on lap 15 while fighting over 19th position.

The second race of the day takes place at 14:17 BST.