Newsham wins eventful first Silverstone race as Boardley is disqualified

Callum Newsham won an eventful first TCR UK race at Silverstone after Carl Boardley, who crossed the finishing line first, was disqualified for an incident with pole sitter Adam Shepherd.

CMB With Hart GT driver Boardley got the jump on pole sitter Shepherd as the lights went out, snatching the lead into Turn 1.

But the two made contact at the exit of the first corner, resulting in a half-spin for Shepherd who collected an innocent Will Powell as he rejoined the circuit.

Powell was stuck in the gravel while Shepherd headed into the pits with a right-rear puncture as the safety car headed out on track.

A swift tyre change by Area Motorsport saw Shepherd rejoining on the same lap as the leaders, starting a frantic charge back up through the field.

The restart saw Hyundai driver Newsham on the move, making his way past both Brad Hutchison (Cupra) and Steven Laidlaw (Cupra) within the space of two corners. The double pass saw him jumping from fourth to second place.

The JH Racing driver then harassed Boardley for the lead but could not get close enough to seriously challenge the Cupra driver.

A second safety car session came as Audi driver Jeffrey Alden came to a halt at the exit of Turn 1.

The final restart saw Shepherd making his way up to seventh place, but it was not a place he was to keep. The stewards handed him a 15-second time penalty which dropped him down to 13th place.

Boardley was disqualified and given four penalty points for the incident with Shepherd at the start.

This handed the win to Newsham ahead of Hutchison and Laidlaw.

Hyundai driver Darron Lewis came hime in fourth place ahead of Cupra driver Matthew Wilson while Luke Sargeant (Audi) rounded off the top six.

The next second TCR UK race of the weekend at Silverstone starts at 13:35 local time/14:35 CEST.