Chilton took full advantage of his pole, leading into Paddock followed by Turkington and Gavin Smith, who both jumped the slow-starting Leons. Two safety cars bunched the field up and allowed Neal to work his way up to seventh. Going nose to tail into Graham Hill Bend after the second restart, Plato touched the back of Smith's Astra, lost control and ended up unavoidably in the path of the following Giovanardi. Meanwhile James Thompson had avoided all the paint swapping, passed Turkington and was now setting off in pursuit of Chilton. Turkington had other ideas however and put a bold but unsuccessful move on Thompson before frantically defending against Neal's Integra, which was now up to a remarkable fourth.

Thompson now turned his attention back to Chilton and on lap 23 he squeezed the Leon down the inside of the Astra to take a lead he would never lose. Chilton held on for a creditable second while Matt Neal came through on the last lap to grab an amazing final podium position from Turkington. And that was only race one.

Two names to watch this season are Fiona Leggate and Mike Jordan. Leggate is back for what she hopes will be her first full season with her Bio-ethanol Astra, while Integra pilot Jordan is a previous British GT, V8 British Eurocar and British Porsche Champion, and finished a fine 5th in his first BTCC race before mechanical problems put him out of races 2 and 3.

Despite a 45kg ballast for his win in race one, Thompson (who is available for only five rounds of the BTCC due to his World Touring Car Championship commitments), climbed to the top step again in race 2, with Turkington this time holding off Neal for second.

The new reverse grid rule saw Chilton start from pole in race 3 but again he failed to keep a SEAT behind him, Plato going past on lap six. The race was defined, however, by a move on Collard by Matt Neal, which resulted in an orange Integra in the pit wall, red flags finishing the race and the eventual exclusion of Collard from the results. None of it, however, could take away from a dream start to SEAT Sport's third season in BTCC as Plato completed a hat trick of wins for the team. As a result SEAT headed to Mondello Park with a clear lead in the team standings and Thompson topping the Drivers' Championship.