Hill beats Rainford to race one Knockhill win

West Surrey Racing's Jake Hill has marked his return to form by winning the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Knockhill, ahead of BMW team mate Charles Rainford.

The defending champion was forced sit out the last three races at Oulton Park due to a viral infection, but bounced back in triumphant fashion in race one to take his second BTCC victory of the 2025 campaign.

Hill started the opener from third on the grid, but took advantage of an inter-WSR skirmish between pole-sitter Rainford and Daryl LeLeon.

Rainford successfully led the opening handful of laps from pole position, but with just 0.6s covering the top-three BMW runners, DeLeon attacked for the lead on lap 9.

DeLeon did initially seize the lead from Rainford, but did so by sliding off the circuit at turn one and collected a heap of grass in his radiator as a result.

The 20-year-old handed the lead back to Rainford just a few corners later, which also allowed Hill to move up to second.

With Rainford looking vulnerable in the lead, Hill pounced at the end of lap 13 after setting up the move on the exit of the final hairpin.

Hill used that superior traction to move ahead of Rainford, who had no answer to attack.

Hill did, in fact, survive a late-race scare after Nick Halstead failed to successfully allow the BMW through whilst being lapped.

The pair made slight contact, which tipped the Power Maxed Racing Cupra Leon into a spin, and was subsequently stranded on the edge of the circuit.

Ironically, that brought out a late safety car, which cut Hill's healthy lead, but it mattered little as the reigning champion once again pulled away to win by almost 1.5s after the restart.

Behind the top-two, championship leader Tom Ingram strengthened his points lead over Ash Sutton to 14 after inheriting third place on the run to the line after a selfless act of team work from his Team Vertu stablemate Senna Proctor.

Proctor, who was running the soft tyre, passed Ingram earlier in the race, but moved aside for his team mate as they exited the final hairpin.

Unlike the race leading BMWs, Ingram elected to use the medium tyre in race one and will start race two from third on the grid with the favoured soft tyre.

NAPA Racing's Dan Cammish completed a steady race to finish in fifth, ahead of home hero Aiden Moffat, who successfully held off a late charge from Sutton in sixth and seventh.

WSR's DeLeon eventually dropped to eighth as his 3-Series continued to overheat with grass lodged in its radiator, while Aron Taylor-Smith and Sam Osborne completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth.