Brad Hutchison beats Callum Newsham in restarted second Silverstone race
Brad Hutchison beat Callum Newsham in a close fight for the win in the second TCR UK race at Silverstone, a race which was red-flagged and restarted following a spectacular roll by Will Powell.
Honda driver Bradley Thurston started the race from pole and headed the field as the lights went out ahead of Lynk & Co newcomer Owen Hillman.
JH Racing driver Newsham was on the move early in the race, climbing to fourth place from ninth on the grid on the first lap.
MPH Racing driver Hutchison climbed to third past Steven Laidlaw on the first lap of the race with some contact, then snatching second place from Thurston in the final corner of the first lap.
The second lap meant disaster for Carl Boardley who spun in the final corner of the lap, dropping him down from eight to 13th place.
Hutchison continued his strong run to snatch the lead from Hillman on lap three, just before the safety car came out on track due to two separate incidents.
The first came when Laidlaw pushed pole sitter Thurston off at Maggots, an incident resulting in a retirement for the Honda driver while Laidlaw could continue to finish sixth after a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
The red flags were brought out due to a separate incident which saw Honda driver Powell going off at high speed at Woodcote, rolling and seriously damaging his Honda – but seemingly walking out without injuries.
The race restarted behind the safety car as the track had been cleared and Newsham quickly made the move on Hillman for second place.
And things went from bad to worse for Hillman who made a mistake and spun in the final complex of corners, dropping him from third down to finish eleventh.
Hutchison won the race just four tenths of a second ahead of Newsham, while Boardley fought his way back to claim the final podium position.
Matthew Wilson finished fourth behind the wheel of his JW Bird Motorsport-pepared Cupra while Darron Lewis rounded off the top five.
Laidlaw was later excluded from the race for the contact that had seen Thurston go off after the intial start.
The third and final race of the weekend starts at 17:30 local time/18:30 CEST.
