The Latest Breaking News from Nicolas Hamilton

Independent racer takes breakthrough win for Restart in Silverstone BTCC opener

Dan Rowbottom held on in a thrilling second race of the weekend to break his season duck in the British Touring Car Championship.

Ingram set the fastest lap of the early-morning FP1 period in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, 0.022 seconds clear of the Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST of championship leader Ash Sutton.

After the second of two red-flag stoppages, Sutton slashed a huge chunk off his early ‘banker lap’ to beat the 2019 qualifying lap record held by Tom Ingram.

The three-time champion demolished his opposition at the wheel of his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST to lead a team 1-2 from Dan Cammish by 0.666 seconds.

As the seconds ticked down in a soggy top-10 Q2 shootout, it appeared that Colin Turkington would secure pole position in his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport.

Last Sunday, the Mercedes driver teased a picture on his Instagram story wearing a face mask, which he later revealed was part of an effort to watch the season-opening British Touring Car Championship action without attracting much attention.

The Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N benefited from being one of those to pit at the end of the green-flag lap for wet-weather Goodyear tyres when rain made the going slippery.

The Northern Irishman eclipsed the quickest time of the opening session set by Ash Sutton, which had been a gargantuan 0.476 seconds clear of closest pursuer Turkington and had seemed to send out an ominous warning that the three-time title winner and the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus squad will be…