Colin Turkington claims commanding lights-to-flag victory

Colin Turkington was perfection personified in the opening British Touring Car Championship contest at Brands Hatch as he claimed a commanding lights-to-flag victory.

Starting from pole position, the Team BMW driver didn’t put a wheel wrong in his BMW 330e M Sport as he led every lap on his way to the top step of the podium.

Behind Turkington, Josh Cook served up a masterful drive on soft tyres to fight his way forward from fifth to finish second, narrowly ahead of reigning champion Ash Sutton, who had elected to run the medium compound tyre.

The opening portion of the race saw plenty of drama for a number of drivers with Dan Cammish – who had been running as high as second at one stage – suffering a front left puncture, while there were also tyre dramas for Daryl Deleon.

Adam Morgan had been a front row starter but a clash with Ronan Pearson on the run up to Druids saw him drop towards the back of the field.

As Turkington, Cook and Sutton cruised to the podium, Andrew Watson battled his way to fourth place while Jake Hill guided his rear-wheel-drive BMW from 12th up to fifth.

Dan Rowbottom and Tom Chilton were sixth and seventh, ahead of Tom Ingram, Aiden Moffat and Rob Huff who completed the top ten.

Race two is scheduled to commence at the Kent circuit at 14:30.