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Brands Hatch BTCC: Moffat wins, Sutton extends championship lead

Aiden Moffat claimed his second British Touring Car Championship victory in the first race of the Brands Hatch finale, as Ash Sutton extended his points lead over Colin Turkington

Team BMR driver Sutton finished the race in third - with Tom Ingram splitting him and Moffat - in his Subaru Levorg, while Turkington could only manage 15th in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport after struggling in tricky conditions.

The majority of the field opted to start on slicks on a greasy track after overnight rain, and Moffat made a better getaway than polesitter Jack Goff on the run to Paddock Hill before backing out of a move around the outside.

Laser Tools Racing driver Moffat then inherited the lead in his Mercedes A-Class when Goff lost his Eurotech Honda Civic Type R exiting the corner and slid into the barrier.

Moffat set about building a small cushion over Sutton - up from third on the grid - whose mirrors were filled by the fast-starting Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis of Ingram.

Ingram had made his way past Sutton by the start of lap six after engineering a gap out of Clearways at the end of the previous lap, but found similar opportunities with Moffat hard to come by.

Despite gradually being caught by the Toyota man, Moffat held firm at the front and was then afforded a bit of breathing space on the final lap after clearing lapped traffic as Sutton came back at Ingram.

Ingram survived an attack at Druids but lost crucial ground to Moffat, who crossed the line 0.345 seconds clear to clinch his second win of the season.

Mat Jackson was fourth in his Motorbase Ford Focus, thanks in part to a gain of seven places on the opening lap, ahead of the two Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astras of Tom Chilton and Senna Proctor.

Gordon Shedden set the fastest lap on his way to seventh in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, with the BTC Norlin Chevrolet Cruze of Dave Newsham and Handy Motorsport's Rob Austin (Toyota Avensis) separating the Scot from team-mate Matt Neal.

Turkington did at least score a point for 15th, but struggled throughout and is now 24 points shy of Sutton in the drivers' championship.

The Northern Irishman lost two positions on the opening lap and, while he made up ground as others wobbled ahead of him, his pace was such that he ceded a spot to the recovering Goff before mid-distance.

Turkington was able to follow the Civic through the order, however, and the pair were 12th and 13th by the time Turkington launched a retaliatory attack to get back past Goff.

He lost position again a lap later, though, and dropped to 15th on the final lap after squirming wide and tapping Matt Simpson's Civic at Graham Hill bend before being passed by the Audi S3 of Ollie Jackson.

Turkington needs to outscore Sutton by at least three points in Sunday's second race, with a maximum of 22 available in the final race of the season.

Race one result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 24m10.915s
2 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 0.345s
3 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 1.499s
4 Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 14.474s
5 Tom Chilton Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 15.802s
6 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 16.195s
7 Gordon Shedden Dynamics/Honda Honda 19.140s
8 Dave Newsham BTC Racing Chevrolet 29.547s
9 Rob Austin Handy Motorsport Toyota 31.577s
10 Matt Neal Dynamics/Honda Honda 41.344s
11 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Chevrolet 47.480s
12 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 47.708s
13 Matt Simpson Dynamics/Honda Honda 49.110s
14 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 50.241s
15 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 50.667s
16 Ant Whorton-Eales AmD Tuning Audi 50.891s
17 Brett Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 1m05.495s
18 Michael Epps Team Hard Volkswagen 1m08.822s
19 James Cole Team BMR Subaru 1m14.046s
20 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing Ford 1m14.698s
21 Martin Depper Motorbase Ford 1m24.787s
22 Josh Price Team BMR Subaru 1m26.364s
23 Aron Taylor-Smith Triple Eight/MG MG 1m38.336s
24 Rory Butcher Motorbase Ford 1 Lap
25 Josh Cook Triple Eight/MG MG 1 Lap
26 Jake Hill Team Hard Volkswagen 1 Lap
27 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 1 Lap
28 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 1 Lap
29 Stewart Lines Maximum Motorsport Ford 1 Lap
- Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes Retirement
- Rob Collard WSR BMW Withdrawn


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