Jason Plato dominated a truncated first British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park to take the lead of the championship, heading home Honda’s Matt Neal and Andy Priaulx.
The team BMR driver led away from the line and never looked likely to relinquish the lead, with a red flag shown in the latter stages of the race after a crash for Stewart Lines at the pit entrance.
Plato was able to build a 1.310s lead by the end of the first lap as the traditionally fast-starting BMW of Priaulx fought Neal for second into Turn 1, with the former initially squeezing up the inside before Neal dived back through at Cascades.
That squabble effectively ended any hope of a challenge to Plato at the front, with the Volkswagen CC driver carrying his fine form over from Saturday with two laps that bettered the circuit’s previous lap record.
And Plato would only build his advantage until lap 13, when the safety car was deployed to recover the stricken Toyota Avensis of Stewart Lines, who crashed at the pit entrance after colliding with Alex Martin.
The race distance was initially extended by a lap, but the decision was quickly taken to red flag the race with two laps to spare in order to repair the tyre wall.
With Plato winning – his fastest lap also meaning he will start race two from pole – Neal held on to second after resisting Priaulx, with Andrew Jordan in sight of the pair for the majority of the race, finishing as the best-placed soft tyre runner in fourth.
Aron Smith was fifth after passing Gordon Shedden, the erstwhile championship leader having been forced to defend throughout the race having started the day with maximum ballast. Colin Turkington had earlier squabbled with the pair, but finished a lowly 25th after making a costly error that saw him go straight on past the Island hairpin and onto the extended Oulton Park circuit.
Jack Goff was seventh ahead of Tom Ingram, with Sam Tordoff and Dave Newsham completing the top ten.
Race Two gets underway at 15:32 BST.
Points scoring result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 99 | Jason PLATO |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 13 | 19:02.264 | 1:26.462 | 1 | |
| 2 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 3.26 | 1:26.755 | 2 |
| 3 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | 3.772 | 1:26.720 | 3 |
| 4 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 13 | 4.758 | 1:26.669 | 4 |
| 5 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 13 | 11.028 | 1:26.910 | 7 | |
| 6 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 14.109 | 1:26.531 | 5 |
| 7 | 31 | M | Jack GOFF | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 13 | 14.62 | 1:27.126 | 8 |
| 8 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 13 | 16.511 | 1:27.173 | 9 | |
| 9 | 7 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | 18.052 | 1:27.040 | 11 |
| 10 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 13 | 19.445 | 1:27.346 | 13 | |
| 11 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 13 | 20.094 | 1:27.045 | 10 | |
| 12 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 13 | 20.849 | 1:27.303 | 14 | |
| 13 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | 21.385 | 1:27.010 | 18 |
| 14 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 13 | 22.105 | 1:27.160 | 12 | |
| 15 | 101 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet AlcoSense | Audi A4 | 13 | 24.075 | 1:27.419 | 15 |