Adam Morgan completed a commanding lights-to-flag victory with a faultless display in the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Rockingham.

Whilst Morgan was taking his third win of the season in relative comfort there was seemingly no end of drama in the battle for the remaining podium places, which kicked off as soon as the lights went out.

A sluggish start from Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish from third on the grid nearly let Tom Chilton's Ford by on the run down to the hairpin for the first time, but as the former went in deep in order to defend he unfortunately tagged second placed Sam Tordoff and tipped him into a spin.

With the the GardX-backed Ford now stranded in the middle of the track and facing the wrong way, a number of unsighted drivers were then caught up in the resulting melee.

Both BTC Norlin Hondas were impacted in some way, as was Sam Smelt's Audi, Andrew Jordan's BMW and Matt Neal's Honda. Whilst the majority of those affected were able to continue a safety car was called in order to clean up the debris.

There was no let off after the restart as Jason Plato was next to be spun around as his Subaru Levorg dropped to the back of the order after contact. His reigning champion team-mate Ash Sutton was busy making progress as he slipped by Cammish into third, but even better was to come for the #1 Adrian Flux Subaru Racing star.

Sutton produced the move of the race on lap 13 with a switchback manoeuvre on Tom Chilton through the esses and he would then scamper away with a second placed finish. Chilton couldn't shake off Cammish and Chris Smiley's BTC Honda as those two swapped places in the closing stages.

Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher's Chilton held on to third but it was Cammish and Smiley crossing the line side-by-side – with Smiley getting the nod for fourth place by just 0.059s.

Mike Bushell enjoyed a stellar performance in his Team HARD-run VW, keeping away from trouble to take sixth ahead of now championship leader Colin Turkington. Team BMW's Turkington had enjoyed a race long battle with title rival Tom Ingram, but the Speedworks Motorsport man was cruelly denied a finish with a throttle problem on the final lap.

Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing), Rory Butcher (AmD with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing) and Matt Simpson (Simpson Racing) completed the top ten positions.