Cammish wins Brands opener after Butcher puncture

Honda driver Dan Cammish won the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the day after profiting from Rory Butcher's late misfortune at Brands Hatch.

In a complete reversal of fortune from last year's dramatic BTCC finale, it was Cammish's turn to enjoy the rub of the green after late drama for long term leader Rory Butcher saw the Team Dynamics driver inherit the lead with just two-laps to go.

Butcher had controlled the vast majority of the race from pole position but fell out of race winning contention in cruel fashion with a puncture on lap 16, following a brief safety car phase.

The Ford driver's dramatic demise immediately promoted Cammish into the lead of the race, while defending four-time champion Colin Turkington also benefited from Butcher's woes to jump into second after starting the opening encounter from fifth.

Turkington had been gradually catching the leading pair before the safety car phase on lap 13, but the Team BMW driver didn't have enough laps left in the race to apply any real pressure on the race winning Honda.

Cammish eventually crossed the line 0.8s ahead of Turkington, while Ollie Jackson gave Motorbase Performace some reason to cheer after salvaging a podium for the Ford squad.

Jackson initially fell out of the podium places early in the race after the Motorbase driver found himself boxed in heading towards Paddock Hill corner, which allowed the BMW 330i M Sport of Turkington to surge past from fifth.

Tom Ingram finished the opening encounter in fourth despite looking vulnerable during the early stages of the races.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver was under huge pressure from the BTC Racing Hondas of Josh Cook and Tom Chilton, but the race eventually came back to Ingram as others faltered.

Chilton completed the top-five order in fifth ahead of Laser Tools Racing's Ashley Sutton in sixth. Just 0.1s covered the pair as the chequered flag fell.

Senna Proctor scored further points for the brand new Hyundai I30N in seventh, while Tom Oliphant, Stephen Jelley and Jake Hill completed the remainder of the top-ten in eighth, ninth and tenth.