Colin Turkington took victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, taking the lead from pole-sitter Gordon Shedden at just over the half-way stage of the race.
Turkington followed the Honda of Shedden for the first half of the race, keeping the pressure firmly applied to the rear of the Scot’s car.
The Subaru driver then made his move on lap eight exiting Agostini’s, getting just enough of an overlap on the Civic to move into the lead heading through Hamilton’s.
That left Shedden to defend from the Motorbase Performance car of Mat Jackson, who had earlier made his way into third on the opening lap from fifth on the grid.
Shedden was able to stave off Jackson’s attack to hold the position, scoring his fourth podium of the season, whilst Jackson also took a podium in what was Motorbase’s 300th BTCC race.
WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan took fourth, despite being part of the leading quintet throughout the race. That quintet became a quartet on lap ten when the fifth-placed MG of Ashley Sutton suffered a front-left puncture and befell the same fate as his team-mate Josh Cook, dropping out of the points.
Sutton’s demise handed the Subaru of Jason Plato fifth, with the former champion expertly passing Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram for the position around the outside at Agostini bend on the penultimate lap.
Ingram himself finished in sixth, ahead of the leading WSR BMW of Sam Tordoff in seventh, who benefitted from the demise of the MGs after passing Honda’s Matt Neal for position on lap eight.
Neal took the chequered flag in eighth, ahead of the Subaru’s of Warren Scott and James Cole, who ensured that all four Levorg cars made it into the top ten for the first time.
Early retirements in the race were Dextra Racing’s Alex Martin and BKR’s Árón Smith who both pulled off the circuit on the opening lap, the latter despite having made up a position to sixth early on.
From the back of the grid, Motorbase Performance’s Andrew Jordan took a hard fought two points for 14th, despite going off the circuit in the complex on the opening lap. He finished just ahead of Power Maxed Raving’s Hunter Abbott, who had a poor first lap to drop from sixth on the grid to 26th, before hauling himself back to 15th and taking the fastest lap of the race in the process.
There was a 30-second stop-and-go penalty for Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat early in the race, with the Mercedes driver having had his wheels changed after the three-minute board had been shown to start the race. He finished down in 23rd position as a result.
Despite post-race investigations for false starts for Turkington, Martin, Mark Howard, Jordan and Stewart Lines, the results were later declared as final.
Race two takes place at 14:02 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 23:46.178 | 1:57.504 | 2 |
| 2 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 2.771 | 1:57.831 | 1 |
| 3 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 12 | 4.042 | 1:57.736 | 5 | |
| 4 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 5.4 | 1:57.597 | 3 | |
| 5 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 6.88 | 1:58.019 | 11 |
| 6 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 8.994 | 1:58.059 | 4 | |
| 7 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 9.607 | 1:58.262 | 10 |
| 8 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 10.172 | 1:58.188 | 9 |
| 9 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 11.16 | 1:57.837 | 15 |
| 10 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 12.647 | 1:58.218 | 13 |
| 11 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 12.876 | 1:57.961 | 16 |
| 12 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 13.441 | 1:58.306 | 17 | |
| 13 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 14.393 | 1:57.918 | 23 | |
| 14 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 12 | 15.137 | 1:57.420 | 31 | |
| 15 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 12 | 15.817 | 1:57.186 | 6 | |
| 16 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 22.488 | 1:58.917 | 18 |
| 17 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 12 | 25.276 | 1:58.643 | 24 | |
| 18 | 88 | Michael CAINE | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 27.669 | 1:58.973 | 25 | |
| 19 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 12 | 30.768 | 1:58.442 | 21 | |
| 20 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 43.162 | 1:57.833 | 20 | |
| 21 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 12 | 45.929 | 1:59.867 | 30 | |
| 22 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 46.136 | 1:58.503 | 19 | |
| 23 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 1:12.850 | 1:57.447 | 14 | |
| 24 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:16.003 | 1:59.170 | 28 | |
| 25 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 12 | 1:21.015 | 1:57.850 | 8 |
| 26 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 12 | 1:21.617 | 1:57.899 | 12 |
| R | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 10 | 2 Laps | 1:58.870 | 26 | |
| R | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 8 | 4 Laps | 1:58.818 | 27 | |
| R | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 3 | 9 Laps | 1:59.696 | 22 | |
| R | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 0 | 12 Laps | 00.000 | 7 | |
| R | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 0 | 12 LAPS | 00.000 | 29 |