Mat Jackson took a commanding third victory of the British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch, ahead of Team BMR’s Aron Smith and the Ciciely Racing Mercedes A-Class of Adam Morgan.
Colin Turkington was fourth, ahead of team-mate and fellow title conteder Jason Plato, who claimed fifth after bumping championship leader Gordon Shedden out of line on the opening lap.
Jackson romped away off his line Motorbase Ford Focus, as Turkington squeezed his Team BMR Volkswagen CC up the inside of Shedden through Paddock Hill bend.
Plato himself latched onto the back of Shedden’s Civic, and forced his way through at Surtees with a robust bump at Surtees.
There was no opportunity for the Scot to retaliate with a safety car quickly deployed at the end of the lap when first Dave Newsham went off at Hawthorns, before Alex Martin crashed into the armco barrier on Derek Minter straight.
With that pair able to recover to the pitlane, however, racing resumed a lap later – although the safety car made a second appearance shortly afterwards when Stewart Lines finished his race in the gravel at Surtees.
The race finally restarted on lap ten and while Jackson, who pulled a big gap on the previous restart, was unable to shake Smith from his tail, the Motorbase man registered another comfortable win at his team’s home circuit, claiming pole for race two with the fastest lap in the process.
In a cagey second half of the race, Turkington, Plato and Shedden maintained a distance from one another at times, each cautious to make a mistake in the first of the day’s three races.
Sixth did little damage to Shedden’s championship lead, but with Plato backing him up at times, the Scot could only record the 12th-fastest lap in race one, and will start four places behind his closest challenger in the second race.
Matt Neal followed his team-mate home in seventh, ahead of Andy Priaulx, while Josh Cook was just able to hold off a charging Rob Collard for ninth.
Race two starts at 14:22 BST.
Points scoring result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 4 | Mat JACKSON |  |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 31:15.989 | 1:31.387 | 1 | |
| 2 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR RCIB Insurance | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 0.715 | 1:31.419 | 2 | |
| 3 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 18 | 1.889 | 1:31.485 | 3 | |
| 4 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMR RCIB Insurance | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 3.92 | 1:31.880 | 5 | |
| 5 | 99 | Jason PLATO | |
Team BMR RCIB Insurance | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 5.696 | 1:31.837 | 6 | |
| 6 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 7.26 | 1:32.142 | 4 |
| 7 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 7.783 | 1:32.173 | 8 |
| 8 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 8.213 | 1:31.808 | 9 |
| 9 | 66 | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 18 | 8.631 | 1:32.337 | 10 | |
| 10 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 8.965 | 1:32.122 | 18 |
| 11 | 7 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 9.935 | 1:32.110 | 14 |
| 12 | 44 | James COLE | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 12.599 | 1:32.363 | 16 | |
| 13 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
AmD Tuning.com | Ford Focus | 18 | 16.092 | 1:32.670 | 20 | |
| 14 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes Benz A-Class | 18 | 16.389 | 1:32.341 | 22 | |
| 15 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic | 18 | 20.452 | 1:32.533 | 19 |