Jason Plato scored a fourth British Touring Car Championship win of the season in the opening encounter at Silverstone, holding off points leader Colin Turkington and Airwaves Racing’s Mat Jackson.
The 46-year-old was expected to convert his pole position into victory with relative ease, but he was made to work hard for the win as the front three remained line astern until the penultimate lap.
Indeed, Turkington got the jump on his MG rival off the line, with the relatively short run to Copse still giving the rear-wheel drive BMW enough time to deploy its advantage at the start. Jackson was also able to jump the second MG of Sam Tordoff into third, while Alain Menu passed teammate Aron Smith for fifth.
Despite being jumped at the start, Plato looked as though he was ready to dominate the encounter and after feigning a pass into Brooklands on the second lap, he quickly regained his lead on the next tour as he passed Turkington at the same spot.
But once in front he struggled to gap the group behind – which at that stage consisted of six cars, with Menu, Smith and Morgan latching onto the back of the leaders – and each attempt he made to pull away from Turkington was matched by the Northern Irishman reeling him in the next time round.
Another group had coagulated behind the leaders, where Marc Hynes headed eight cars for eighth place. Hynes, in the third MG, initially appeared to be backing those behind him into one another, but soon pulled a gap on Tom Ingram, who found himself under real pressure from Rob Austin.
At the halfway distance Morgan made a forceful move past Smith for sixth, having threatened to do so for some laps, and set his sights on catching Menu in the leading BMR Volkswagen, who had begun to gap his teammate. Morgan’s chase was to be short-lived, however, as Smith re-passed the WIX Racing driver at the start of lap 14, as his Mercedes slowed and was forced to pull off at the start of the Club straight.
Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden had both made progress from their grid slots as they looked to move into the top ten, but as a move from Austin put Ingram on the back foot, with the youngster then shuffled back through the pack, Shedden looked to get in on the action but was forced off the track as the Speedworks driver appeared not to have seen him.
Plato was still unable to break Turkington at the front as the leading trio started to pull away from Tordoff, with his lead rarely bigger than half a second. Despite that, it looked unlikely that Turkington would be able to pass the MG and the one moment that might have presented him with an opportunity – when the three came round to lap Simon Belcher – worked against him as Plato got by early and finally pulled some breathing space from the BMW, with Jackson closing up to Turkington as the pair passed the Handy Motorsport Toyota Avensis.
Jackson’s interest in second place put pay to any hopes that Turkington had of claiming a win, as Plato crossed the line to win by a somewhat flattering 1.453s.
Behind the leading three, Tordoff, Menu and Smith retained their places in the top six, while a late charge from Rob Collard saw him pass Hynes for seventh on the final lap. Hynes nevertheless recorded his best result to date in the series, ahead of Austin in ninth and Jordan in tenth.
Shedden recovered slightly to 13th – which leaves him as the third and final driver still in the title fight – while his teammate Matt Neal was forced to take a drive-through penalty on the final lap and dropped to 21st as a result. Luke Hines, on his return to action, finished in 20th.
Race Two gets underway at 14:32 BST.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO |  |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 22 | 21:56.060 | 59.449 | 1 |
| 2 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 22 | 1.453 | 59.457 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 22 | 1.578 | 59.460 | 4 |
| 4 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 22 | 3.561 | 59.426 | 3 |
| 5 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 4.602 | 59.486 | 6 |
| 6 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 22 | 4.909 | 59.287 | 5 |
| 7 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 22 | 11.151 | 59.413 | 11 |
| 8 | 888 | I | Marc HYNES | |
Quantel Bifold Racing | MG6 | 22 | 11.729 | 59.510 | 8 |
| 9 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 22 | 12.04 | 59.424 | 10 |
| 10 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 22 | 12.687 | 59.548 | 16 |