Cook wins Brands opener as Sutton inches nearer to BTCC title

Josh Cook led home a BTC Racing one-two finish ahead of team mate Senna Proctor to secure his fourth British Touring Car Championship race win of the year in race one at Brands Hatch.

Cook started the race from second position, but immediately got the better of his pole-sitting team mate Proctor on the run up to Druids corner on the opening lap of the race.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver ducked underneath his BTC stablemate Proctor on the exit of Paddock Hill corner, which gave him the high ground to move past on the inside at Druids.

Even a brief safety car phase wasn't enough to disrupt the BTC Racing duo's rhythm at the head of the field as Cook and Proctor were able to maintain a healthy margin ahead of Gordon Shedden in third.

Shedden consolidated his place on the podium after moving ahead of his Team Dynamics team mate Dan Rowbottom on the fourth lap of the race.

The three-time champion did set the fastest lap of the race, but it wasn't enough to derail a dominant one-two result for the BTC Honda outfit.

Rowbottom ultimately fell to fifth, with Vauxhall's Dan Lloyd breaking the Honda quartet in fourth position. Lloyd sliced past Rowbottom's Civic Type-R on the second lap of the race to secure yet another top-five finish for the Power Maxed Racing squad.

Behind the top-five came the all important race for this season's title. Reigning champion and current points leader Ash Sutton inched ever closer to securing a third BTCC title after finishing ahead of his main title rival Colin Turkington in sixth position.

The Laser Tools Racing driver extended what was already a healthy margin to 33-points ahead of Turkington, who was unable to make any real impression on the lead Infiniti Q50.

Turkington's opening race got off to a good start after the four-time champion crucially jumped ahead of Sutton's team mate Aiden Moffat into seventh position.

However, the Team BMW driver never got close to putting Sutton under any real pressure, but still remains in the title hunt, albeit 33-points back with just two races to go.

Nevertheless, seventh for Turkington and eleventh for Tom Oliphant was enough for BMW to clinch the manufacturers' championship two races early ahead of Motorbase Performance/Ford.

Mofffat consolidated his position in eighth, while Tom Chilton and Ollie Jackson completed the top-ten order in ninth and tenth after Team BMW's Stephen Jelley from ninth during the dying stages of the race.