Hill launched his Laser Tools-liveried West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport to the front of the pack from third on the grid while poleman Tom Ingram got swallowed up.
The diminutive Kentishman had established a comfortable advantage by the end of the opening lap, but found that hard work ruined by an arguably unnecessary safety car to retrieve a tyre stack that had been biffed into the track at the exit of the chicane by Andrew Watson, who had found himself with no room to manoeuvre other than into the corner-cutting deterrent.
That appeared to pull Hill into great risk from the chasing Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focuses of Dan Cammish, who had access to six laps of hybrid usage compared to three for the BMW, and championship leader Ash Sutton, who was allowed just one lap of hybrid.
But Cammish couldn’t match the pace of Hill at the restart, and after the first lap of green-flag racing the BMW was over a second to the good.
The gap ebbed and flowed depending on who was using hybrid at which time, but Hill never came under serious attack and took the chequered flag 1.216 seconds clear.
Sutton, along with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of Tom Ingram, ran out of what little hybrid they had very early in the race.
Cammish, Sutton and Ingram stayed close throughout, but without changing position.
“What an amazing achievement – to get a win somewhere I didn’t really feel I’d be able to do it,” said Hill, who also got fastest lap and has therefore moved to just four points away from series leader Sutton.
“It didn’t feel like a race-winning car yesterday, but obviously it is.
“I had to manage it. There was a time when Dan got really close when he used his last lap of hybrid, so I thought, ‘Right, I’ll use my last lap too.’ That just gave me the opportunity to stay out of reach.”
Dan Rowbottom in the third of the Alliance Fords had also run ahead of Ingram on the opening lap, after the Hyundai got rather pincered by the yellow-and-blue machines on the run to the Complex.
But a squiggly moment at Goodwood gave Ingram the run on Rowbottom, albeit the 2022 champion had to run two wheels on the grass, and the second Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton also got through.
Rowbottom barged his way back ahead of Chilton at the safety car restart, also opening up a gap for Josh Cook to demote the Surrey veteran in his Speedworks Motorsport-run LKQ Toyota Corolla.
Rowbottom got close to the Cammish-Sutton-Ingram trio in front of him, but fell away again, while Cook was an equally lonely sixth.
Chilton had to fend off the WSR BMWs of Adam Morgan and Colin Turkington, which he did before pulling away slightly in the closing stages for seventh.
Chilton then moved up to sixth in the results, and Cook to fifth, when Rowbottom was penalised down to seventh for having an overlap on the Hyundai at the safety car restart, even though he hadn't yet completed his overtaking move as they crossed the start-finish line.
Behind Morgan (eighth) and Turkington (ninth), Aron Taylor-Smith beat his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra team-mate Mikey Doble to the final slot in the top 10, after Doble had pulled off a sweet manoeuvre around the outside of the Complex on the Toyota of Rob Huff, who manages the former BMW Compact Cup and Ginetta GT5 champion.
BTCC Thruxton - Race 1 results
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| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Retirement | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
BMW 330e M Sport | 18 |
25'25.141 |
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| 2 | D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 18 |
+1.216 25'26.357 |
1.216 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 18 |
+1.955 25'27.096 |
0.739 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 18 |
+2.518 25'27.659 |
0.563 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 18 |
+7.918 25'33.059 |
5.400 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 |
+13.147 25'38.288 |
5.229 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 18 |
+16.739 25'41.880 |
3.592 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | A. Morgan Team BMW |
BMW 330e M Sport | 18 |
+18.765 25'43.906 |
2.026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | C. Turkington Team BMW |
BMW 330e M Sport | 18 |
+19.151 25'44.292 |
0.386 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 |  A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing |
Vauxhall Astra | 18 |
+19.752 25'44.893 |
0.601 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 |
M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing
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Vauxhall Astra | 18 |
+19.978 25'45.119 |
0.226 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 |
+20.879 25'46.020 |
0.901 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 |
+24.617 25'49.758 |
3.738 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 |
+26.964 25'52.105 |
2.347 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 |
R. Pearson Team Bristol Street Motors
|
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 18 |
+27.400 25'52.541 |
0.436 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 18 |
+28.401 25'53.542 |
1.001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | C. Smiley Restart Racing |
Cupra León | 18 |
+34.709 25'59.850 |
6.308 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18 |
D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard
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Cupra León | 18 |
+36.994 26'02.135 |
2.285 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19 |
N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors
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Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 18 |
+48.924 26'14.065 |
11.930 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf |
S. Sumpton Restart Racing
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Cupra León | 13 |
5 laps |
Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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