Rory Butcher wins Silverstone opener as championship lead changes

Toyota’s Rory Butcher held off a challenge from MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill to take victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone, as erstwhile points leader Colin Turkington was taken out of the race.

At the start Butcher moved into a clean lead, as Hill had to fend off an initial challenge from Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan.

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram then muscled his way past Morgan’s BMW at Brooklands, but after trying to then muscle past Hill on the next lap as the rear-wheel drive cars continued to build tyre temperature, the Hyundai driver found himself elbowed off-line on lap three and he dropped down to sixth.

Team BMW’s Turkington was in the wars on the opening lap when bunching up at Luffield saw BTC racing’s Josh Cook tap the rear of his BMW and spin him onto the grass and down to last.

Turkington recovered back onto the track but was running in 25^th when he received further contact on lap eight.

Excelr8’s Jack Butel and Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat had already made contact earlier in the lap, and the two then came together again at Luffield into the path of Turkington, who suffered from a pair of broken toe links in the contact and had to pit for repairs.

Meanwhile, Butcher had built a near two-second lead over Hill before the safety car was called on lap 12 after Motorbase’s Sam Osborne had punted Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand into the gravel trap at Becketts.

When racing resumed on lap 15 Hill was able to keep much closer to the leading Toyota, but despite the gap remaining at less than four tenths for the rest of the distance, Hill couldn’t find a way past and Butcher was able to seal his first win of the season.

Hill took second and is now just ten points from the lead of the championship, with Morgan completing the podium with just his second visit to the rostrum this season.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden was fourth, having got by NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish on the run from Luffield to Woodcote on the sixth lap.

Cammish then lost fifth to Ingram two laps later, with the Hyundai driver taking the chequered flag in that place.

On the last lap, Cammish ceded track position to team-mate Ashley Sutton, allowing the reigning champion to take sixth and in doing so he has assumed the position of championship leader, four points ahead of Turkington.

Cammish was thus seventh, whilst the second Toyota of Ricky Collard finished in eighth.

The top ten was completed by Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley, who gained two places in the closing laps and Excelr8’s Tom Chilton.

Dan Lloyd ran in the top ten for most of the race, but after losing out to Jelley he then fell behind Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson two laps from the finish and took 12^th.

Cook came home in 13^th, dropping a pair of places just before the safety car intervention, with the points being completed by team-mate Jason Plato and Team HARD’s Árón Taylor-Smith.

Sutton now leads the standings with 315 points, ahead of Turkington (311), Ingram (305), Hill (305) and Cook (246).

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:25 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	24:26.524	57.920	1
2	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	24	0.299	57.812	2
3	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	24	0.551	57.868	3
4	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	24	1.424	58.086	8
5	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	1.714	57.783	4
6	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	3.216	58.006	7
7	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	3.404	58.189	5
8	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	4.077	58.067	6
9	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	5.511	58.162	11
10	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	6.077	58.084	14
11	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	24	6.483	58.193	16
12	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	24	6.931	58.164	9
13	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	7.286	58.340	12
14	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	7.882	58.540	19
15	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	8.621	58.308	23
16	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	10.814	58.399	20
17	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	13.162	58.679	25
18	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	24	13.615	58.754	21
19	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	24	14.436	58.784	13
20	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	24	17.542	58.711	26
21	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	24	18.151	58.736	29
22	20	I		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	24	23.297	59.195	28
23	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	23	+ 1 LAP	58.802	27
24	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	23	+ 1 LAP	58.049	17
R	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	22	DNF	58.391	24
R	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	DNF	58.668	22
NC	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	15	NCF	58.172	10
R	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	10	DNF	58.320	15
R	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	9	DNF	58.958	18