BTCC: Osborne claims maiden victory with Silverstone race three win

Sam Osborne takes the final race victory of the day and his maiden win in the BTCC in a very controlled drive from the NAPA driver.

Sam Osborne started on pole ahead of Mikey Doble and Josh Cook. Daryl DeLeon was meant to start third but was unable to start. With the championship leaders of Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram in eleventh and twelfth as well as Dan Cammish, Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and Dan Rowbottom at the back of the grid, it was set to be a surprise result filled race.

Osborne got a great start as Doble fell into the clutches of Moffat's BMW, managing to compete the rear wheel drive car behind. Contact caused Dan Lloyd to fall down to the back of the grid after spinning meanwhile Hill, Sutton and Ingram made up a number of places on the opening lap, with all three making up five places. Sutton would continue to charge forward passing Hill next to move to sixth place at Brooklands.

Further up front, Cook would make his way by Doble into second place on the exit of Luffield at the end of lap two to then set his sights on Osborne. Moffat would be the next to line up an attack in Doble as the BMW would slide past into Brooklands making his way into the final podium spot. Sutton would slide his way into fourth place passing Doble at Becketts as he tries to charge through the field. Hill would follow Sutton through to fifth and Ingram would not long follow suit as well.

Cook would put Osborne under pressure on lap six into lap seven while Sutton would make his way by Moffat at Brooklands to jump into the final podium place. Ingram and Hill would battle over fifth place as the Hyundai would get the run onto the main straight before Hill would make a cutback through Copse to get back in front. The two would continue to fight before Hill went slightly deeper forcing Ingram to go wider and allowing Rowbottom to fly passed Rowbottom as Hill defends hard enough to keep fifth.

Rowbottom who started eighteenth, was now trying to put Hill under more pressure but the BMW would continue defend hard through to the half way point of the race. Osborne would also continue to not be caught out under pressure against Cook as the Toyota sits behind the Ford being unable to find a way by.

Ingram would start to attack Rowbottom as the Ford driver used a lot more of his boost in the early stages. Ingram would try to find a way by but his lack of turbo boost meant it became significantly more difficult than expected. Ingram would pull alongside into Copse causing Rowbottom to bounce across the curb and managing to get a better exit into Maggots and Becketts to take sixth. Rowbottom would receive a 10 second time penalty for track limits as well.

Cook would force Osborne into a mistake but the NAPA driver would use the wider entry to take a better exit and maintain the position and then use the boost to pull a bit of a gap to Cook. Cook would have a slide into Luffield opening up the gap to Cook to over a second.

Osborne would come home to take his first ever BTCC victory and becomes the thirteenth driver to take victory this season. Cook would come home second with Sutton taking the final podium spot. Hill would finish in fourth ahead of Ingram in fifth after both passed Moffat on the final two laps. Morgan would finish in seventh ahead of Chilton, Cammish and Doble who complete the top ten.

At the end of the weekend, Ingram would lead the standings by 33 points over Sutton as the pair will go into the final three races at Brands Hatch looking to claim the title.

The Independents Drivers Championship is a four way fight into the final three races as Lloyd leads by ten points over Doble. Chris Smiley sits one point further back while Dexter Patterson has an outside chance being mathematically in the championship and fifty-six points back.

The Jack Sears Trophy sees DeLeon sit on top but only eight points clear of teammate Charles Rainford. Sam Osborne also goes into the final three races with a mathematical chance of taking the Trophy after his win today as he sits forty-eight points back.