Team Toyota GB’s Tom Ingram took victory from polesitter Jason Plato in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone after progressing from fourth on the grid.
Plato enjoyed an ideal start on a damp-but-drying circuit, but Ingram had moved up to second by the end of the opening lap with a move on Matt Neal at Brooklands before setting about closing the gap to the leader.
After going purple on the following lap, Ingram challenged Plato and executed the cutback on the exit of Luffield to draw alongside before completing the move into Copse corner after the pair banged wheels.
Thereafter, Plato struggled to match the pace of Ingram, and the gap between the pair was over four seconds at the flag as Ingram gave the new-for-2019 Corolla its third win of the season.
In his 100th BTCC race, Chris Smiley completed the podium ahead of BTC Racing team-mate Josh Cook, who secured strong points in his title bid as the pair came home third and fourth respectively.
Team BMW’s Tom Oliphant converted his strong qualifying result into fifth position in the best of the WSR BMWs, while Matt Neal came home sixth despite struggling on the medium compound tyre in the early stages.
Series returnee Mike Bushell impressed in seventh position, as the Kent racer continues to step in for Sam Tordoff in the AmD Tuning FK2 Honda Civic after making his return to the series at Knockhill.
Title contender Andrew Jordan looked to initially have narrowed the gap to leader Colin Turkington in eighth position, but Jordan was later handed a post-race time penalty dropping him to tenth after contact with Tom Chilton.
Jordan’s WSR stablemate Turkington, meanwhile, suffered contact with Rob Collard on the exit of Luffield mid-way through the race.
Collard had Adam Morgan’s Mercedes on the inside – who would eventually come home ninth, later eighth after Jordan’s penalty, while Turkington was pitched into a spin and briefly dropped out of the points.
Motorbase Performance’s Tom Chilton was ninth after being reinstated ahead of Jordan, who took tenth. Chilton was part of a titanic battle for ninth which saw Dan Cammish’s Honda clinch 11th at the line from Collard’s Vauxhall.
Matt Simpson’s older Honda Civic came home 13th, while Turkington recovered to 14th in the final laps following the earlier spin.
Knockhill polesitter and racewinner Rory Butcher was 15th in the final points-paying position, ahead of AmD Tuning stablemate and fellow Knockhill winner Jake Hill in 16th.
2017 champion Ash Sutton had been battling for fourth position with Cook, but suffered the same fate as his team-mate Senna Proctor had earlier in the race, with both Subaru Levorgs having left-front punctures.
Both Mark Blundell and Stephen Jelley had heavy front damage after contact on the exit of Becketts mid-race.
Race two of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone is set to get underway at 14:35 BST.
Amended race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM |  |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 22 | 21:40.695 | 58.231 | 4 |
| 2 | 11 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 22 | 4.312 | 58.252 | 1 |
| 3 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 7.554 | 58.340 | 2 |
| 4 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 8.071 | 58.507 | 9 |
| 5 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 22 | 13.265 | 58.240 | 5 |
| 6 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 14.028 | 58.419 | 3 |
| 7 | 21 | I | Mike BUSHELL | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 16.886 | 58.537 | 13 |
| 8 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 22 | 23.676 | 58.922 | 23 |
| 9 | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 22 | 23.926 | 58.796 | 11 |
| 10 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 22 | 23.987 | 58.656 | 14 |
| 11 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 24.064 | 58.521 | 7 |
| 12 | 9 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 22 | 24.119 | 58.784 | 17 |
| 13 | 303 | I | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 24.384 | 58.749 | 21 |
| 14 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 22 | 25.716 | 58.608 | 6 |
| 15 | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 22 | 27.963 | 58.964 | 12 |
| 16 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 22 | 28.903 | 58.841 | 22 |
| 17 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 29.617 | 58.944 | 15 |
| 18 | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 22 | 30.127 | 58.863 | 18 |
| 19 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 22 | 30.991 | 58.753 | 19 |
| 20 | 44 | I | Michael CAINE | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus RS | 22 | 31.217 | 58.627 | 16 |
| 21 | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 22 | 34.709 | 59.294 | 30 |
| 22 | 37 | I | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 22 | 36.586 | 59.067 | 29 |
| 23 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 37.116 | 59.248 | 27 |
| 24 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 21 | + 1 LAP | 57.967 | 8 |
| 25 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 21 | + 1 LAP | 57.975 | 10 |
| 26 | 32 | I | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 19 | + 3 LAPS | 58.850 | 25 |
| R | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 15 | DNF | 58.960 | 20 |
| R | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 8 | DNF | 1:00.000 | 26 |
| R | 8 | I | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 8 | DNF | 59.335 | 28 |
| R | 777 | I | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 5 | DNF | 1:00.833 | 24 |
