Jake Hill Takes Triumphant Race One Win After Doble Disgrace.
Silverstone, the home of British motorsport, played host to the penultimate meeting for the 2023 British Touring Car Championship. Race one was chaotic as always, but Jake Hill bought his 330i BMW home for his first win of the day.
Mikey Doble, the pole sitter from Saturdays qualifying, continued around for a second formation lap and had to start from the back of the grid; A nightmare start for the Power Maxed Racing squad.
With half of the field on wet tyres and the other half on dry's, Jake Hill has been able to pull a five second gap to Andrew Watson in second.
Tom Ingram was spun coming out of the last corner, and immediately pits for wet tyres.
Chaos in the pitlane! The second half of the field on slick tyres all dive to the pits for wet tyres excluding Rory Butcher, Josh Cook and Aron Taylor-Smith.
Top ten after the pitstops on lap 6/22:
Hill
Watson
Rowbottom
Osborne
Thompson
Morgan
Crees
DeLeon
Lloyd
Butcher
Both Toyota's of Gamble and Butcher fight for tenth position with Butcher still on slick tyres.
Colin Turkington retired from the race after contact with Tom Chilton on the opening lap bent a section on the front left of his WSR BMW.
Hill's gap of five seconds had shrunk to just three and a half seconds to Watson in the Vauxhall behind him after 10 laps of racing.
Adam Morgan finds the gravel at the penultimate corner with thanks to the Valvoline liveried Ford Focus of Osborne, the BMW driver managed to keep his 330i facing the right way and the chase was still on for that final podium position.
After 13 laps completed the drivers remaining on slicks, Cook, Butcher and Taylor-Smith especially, set green times lap after lap.
Taylor-Smith barged past Cook on lap 15 at luffield and takes 12th off of the Honda driver.
Hill built up his five second gap again to Watson's Vauxhall, Rowbottom has managed to catch the Astra and was looking hopeful for a second place finish.
Lap 19/22, Watson defends heroically from the Napa Racing UK Ford of Rowbottom, but has to yield on the following lap after a valiant attack from the Ford proved to much for the Astra to defend from.
Doble was able to recover his nightmare start to a healthy 11th place to bring home some points for the Vauxhall outfit, but the mood on that side of the garage will be extremely sour.
After the dust settled from a chaotic race one, Jake Hill crossed the line ahead of Rowbottom in second and Watson in third to complete the top three at Silverstone in race one.
Jake Hill: 22 Laps
Daniel Rowbottom: +5.355
Andrew Watson: +7.430
Adam Morgan: +19.464
Bobby Thompson: +20.642
Rory Butcher: +21.197
Aron Taylor-Smith: +22.257
Sam Osborne: +22.776
Josh Cook: +27. 538
Daniel Lloyd: +29.078
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