Tordoff beats Chilton for first BTCC win of 2018

Sam Tordoff leads a Motorbase Performance 1-2 finish ahead of Tom Chilton to secure his first British Touring Car Championship race victory of 2018 at Silverstone.

Tordoff became a record breaking 15th different driver to win a race this season after leading every lap of the opening race, having started from pole position.

The Ford Focus RS driver crucially retained his lead ahead of Team BMW's Ricky Collard at the start of the race and never relinquished his position at the head of the field.

As virtue of his RWD BMW, Collard had been expected to move into the lead at the start of the race. Instead, the BTCC rookie initially dropped down to fifth after being hung out to dry at Copse corner during the opening exchanges.

It was Chilton who subsequently slotted into second and began to give chase to his race leading Motorbase team mate once the safety car peeled back into the pits on lap eight.

Indeed, by lap 17, Chilton managed to latch himself onto the rear of his team mate's Ford Focus RS. However, the pair remained in formation with Tordoff leading Chilton across the line by 0.468s.

Despite falling to fifth early in the race, Collard superbly maintained his composure to claim a remarkable podium result with third on only his seventh race start in the series.

His BMW team mate Andrew Jordan had held third for much of the first half of the race, but technical gremlins struck the 2013 champion's 1 Series on the 11th lap and subsequently robbed Jordan the chance of a podium finish.

Jordan's demise also promoted Jack Goff into fourth, while Matt Simpson took his best result since leaving the Eurotech Racing fold in fifth.

Adam Morgan was sixth for Mac Tools Racing, ahead of Mike Bushell, who stormed through the order from 15th to seventh.

Team BMW's Colin Turkington produced another scintillating charge through the field from 18th to eighth, to extend his BTCC points lead ahead of Tom Ingram.

Turkington's lead now stands at 50-points, while Ingram's second place looks to be under increasing threat thanks to a 12th place finish from reigning champion Ashley Sutton.

Ingram himself managed to salvage a solitary point in 15th.