Jake Hill cruises to comfortable lights-to-flag victory

Jake Hill converted pole position into a comfortable lights-to-flag victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Snetterton.

The West Surrey Racing driver was wheel-perfect in a dry opening contest as he cruised to the top step of the podium on soft tyres, while a number of battles ensued behind.

Chief of those battles was the scrap for second place which saw Bobby Thompson – on his debut weekend for BMW – make it a WSR 1-2 after getting the better of reigning champion Ash Sutton.

Sutton would hold on to third place to extend his podium streak to seven consecutive races, which has now equalled the current modern era record set by Mat Jackson back in 2009.

Behind the top three, Dan Cammish and Adam Morgan captivated fans with a thrilling back-and-forth due which culminated in the Alliance Racing Ford of Cammish getting the better of Morgan.

Morgan soon came under pressure from the Toyota of Andrew Watson who made a bold move at the Wilson Hairpin to snatch fifth away. Tom Ingram was the next to make a move on Morgan in latter stages; both he and Colin Turkington had charged up the order from outside the top ten in the early stages of the bout.

Completing the top ten was Rob Huff and Dan Rowbottom, the latter having inherited the position when Chris Smiley was forced into the pit lane due to his door open following contact.

Race two is scheduled to begin at 14:25.