Ash Sutton managed to hold of the late charge of Jake Hill to win Round 7 of the championship. The gap appeared to be managed before everything changed with only two laps to go.
A mixture of strategy was expected for the first time this year with the introduction of all three tyres across a weekend. Sutton was on the medium and the five drivers behind him were all on the softs.
The NAPA Racing UK driver held the lead from start to finish and looked to hold a relatively comfortable gap. That was the case until Jake Hill passed fellow BMW driver Colin Turkington on lap 9 of 12 and his pace was set free.
Turkington struggled with the pace on his soft tyres towards the end of the race but managed to hold on to the podium. Tom Ingram was the one trying to take the podium away from him. The EXCELR8 driver had a poor start dropping to sixth on the opening lap fighting back forward to fourth.
Behind Ingram to make it four in the top six were the two other BMW drivers. Adam Morgan edged the tight battle between the two drivers finishing only 0.216 seconds ahead. The two did not have the pace of the drivers in front finishing over eight seconds behind Ingram.
Next was the first of the hard tyre runners in Dan Rowbottom. The teammate of the race winner moved forward after starting ninth and did not move from seventh. The hard tyre for Rowbottom did not have the pace of the drivers in front 11 seconds behind the BMW’s.
Josh Cook, also on the hard tyres, started well as he was fighting with the fallen Ingram for sixth on the opening lap. After falling to eighth the race began to appear lonely for the One Motosport car. Rowbottom in front and Rory Butcher behind had gaps that left Cook in no mans land.
Butcher came home in ninth after a scare from the retiring sister car of Ricky Collard. Collard had a water pump failure alarm go off and had to retire on lap five. After Butcher had a head gasket blow at Brands it was a nervous seven laps to the flag.
Árón Taylor-Smith would round out the top 10 on the soft tyres leaving race-winner Sutton as the only medium runner in the top 10. After starting in 13th the Power Maxed Racing driver moved through the field to get into the top 10.
Dan Cammish, the championship leader before the round, had a resurgent race after crashing and saying “I’ve let myself down” on Saturday. Cammish had gained eight places on the opening lap and made his way forward to 10th late on. All of this done on the hard tyre before Taylor-Smith would pass back through to leave Cammish in 11th from 25th.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 116 | M |  |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 23:23:332 | 1:55.895 | 1 |
| 2 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 12 | 0.270 | 1:55.393 | 4 |
| 3 | 4 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 12 | 3.553 | 1:55.893 | 3 |
| 4 | 1 | M | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 12 | 4.541 | 1:55.090 | 2 |
| 5 | 33 | M | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 12 | 12.961 | 1:56.586 | 6 |
| 6 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 12 | 13.177 | 1:56.413 | 10 |
| 7 | 32 | M | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 24.648 | 1:57.815 | 9 |
| 8 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 29.285 | 1:57.813 | 7 |
| 9 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 12 | 32.283 | 1:58.252 | 8 |
| 10 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 32.562 | 1:57.851 | 13 |
| 11 | 27 | M | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 33.619 | 1:57.616 | 25 |
| 12 | 14 | M | |
Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 12 | 34.895 | 1:57.748 | 14 |
| 13 | 77 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 34.897 | 1:58.017 | 17 |
| 14 | 42 | M | |
George GAMBLE | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 12 | 40.414 | 1:58.575 | 12 |
| 15 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 42.828 | 1:58.774 | 15 |
| 16 | 19 | I | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 42.950 | 1:58.929 | 18 |
| 17 | 88 | I | |
Mikey DOBLE | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 43.591 | 1:58.716 | 16 |
| 18 | 11 | I | |
Andrew WATSON | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 43.899 | 1:58.514 | 19 |
| 19 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 48.238 | 1:59.140 | 22 |
| 20 | 17 | I | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 48.429 | 1:59.067 | 20 |
| 21 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 49.702 | 1:59.381 | 21 |
| 22 | 70 | I | |
Will POWELL | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 57.327 | 1:59.796 | 23 |
| 23 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 57.986 | 1:59.862 | 24 |
| 24 | 3 | M | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 12 | 1:02.401 | 1:57.663 | 11 |
| 25 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 1:03.750 | 2:00.336 | 27 |
| 26 | 22 | M | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 12 | 1:12.115 | 2:00.355 | 26 |
| R | 37 | M | |
Ricky COLLARD | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 4 | DNF | 1:57.068 | 5 |