BTCC: Doble claims maiden victory at Snetterton

The final race of the day saw Mikey Doble claim his first ever BTCC race win through a mix of fantastic speed and defensive skill.

Doble started on pole and was supposed to be joined by Chris Smiley on the front row, but an issue with Smiley's car before leaving the pit lane meant that he couldn't start the race until he was already multiple laps down.

Doble led into turn 1 from Dan Lloyd and Adam Morgan all while Tom Chilton lost multiple places to Charles Rainford, Ash Sutton and Josh Cook through turn 2 while he was on hard tyres.

The Safety Car would then be deployed for a stricken Stephen Jelley who had ended his race in the wall after contact. This led to the extra 3 laps being added to the race.

Cook would pass Morgan and Lloyd after the Safety Car while Doble pulled away in the lead. Sutton would also look to get by the Team Vertu and Restart Racing Hyundai's quickly as the championship leader looks to maximise his championship lead with Ingram down the order.

While Sutton was making moves to get into third, his NAPA teammate Sam Osborne would take the opportunity to make the move on Morgan and Lloyd himself moving up to 4th.

Tom Ingram by lap 8 had made 18 places in an phenomenal first half of the race to be in 6th. He wouldn't stop their though as he would find his way by for 5th soon after.

Sutton would pass Cook for second and with 6 laps to go, would try to hunt down Doble for first. Ingram would make up another place in this time, passing Osborne for 4th place completing 20 place climb up the order.

Sutton, who had made eight places in this race, was within a second of Doble for the last 4 laps, putting pressure on him and attacking the Vauxhall driver. But, Doble held firm and went on to claim his first win in the BTCC from Sutton and Cook who round out the podium.

Ingram would finish in 4th ahead of Osborne and Cammish. Meanwhile, the BMW's of Rainford and Hill would finish 7th and 8th while Ronan Pearson and Aiden Moffat would round out the top 10.

Doble's victory would make it the third driver to become a first time winner this season. Post-race Hill would be handed a penalty for contact with Pearson on the final corner dropping him behind the Toyota driver.

Sutton leads the standings by 15 points over Ingram as well as 40 points ahead of third in the standings Hill while Rowbottom and Cammish round out the top 5 in the standings.

Doble leads the Independent championship by two points from Smiley by 2 points while Cook in third only sits 14 points behind them.

In the Jack Sears Trophy, Daryl DeLeon leads from Rainford and Pearson, with 11 points separating the three of them while Osborne and Dexter Patterson complete the top 5 in the standings.