MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square ended a challenging weekend on an unbelievable high as Jake Hill won Round 24 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone.

Hill – fresh from his triumph at Croft – arrived in Northamptonshire with a ballast-laden Ford Focus, which seriously dented his performance during qualifying.

Steady progress in race one was followed by a great drive in race two – finishing in ninth from 21st on the grid – setting up a race-winning opportunity in the final encounter.

With only the Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing duo of Daniel Lloyd and Jason Plato ahead of him, he easily dispatched the latter off the line.

A game of cat and mouse ensued as Hill's Ford went side-by-side with Lloyd's Vauxhall on a number of occasions before the former made a firm move through Copse shortly after mid-distance.

Lloyd kept Hill honest throughout as he enjoyed his best weekend of the season so far, whilst championship leader Ash Sutton completed the podium.

Chris Smiley hung on well to fourth in his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai, ahead of Team BMW's Stephen Jelley and Plato, who had dropped following a sluggish start.

Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat completed another solid weekend with seventh, ahead of an interesting battle between four-time champion Colin Turkington and the Team Dynamics-run Honda of Daniel Rowbottom.

Ollie Jackson made it a double celebration for MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square as he rounded out the top ten.

Jake Hill said: “This is what relief looks like – wow! Obviously, that’s what I wanted. I knew it was suffering on Saturday, so I wanted to get the reverse grid and to finish somewhere sensible, but I didn’t expect a win quite like that. It was great, what a fantastic race with Dan [Lloyd], I thoroughly enjoyed it. We come home winners again, I’m absolutely over the moon.

“I pulled a comfortable gap, kept him there and it was all good. I did make a couple of little mistakes, he reeled me back in and got close again. Then, I don’t know if he made a small mistake, he dropped back a bit and let me breathe for the last couple of laps. It was a really good race, I enjoyed it a lot. I really want to say a massive thanks to my engineer Craig and all the team at MB Motorsport for turning this thing around, because we were genuinely struggling and they’ve brought it back to being a race-winning car.

“They re-engineered the front of it, we were really struggling with the front of the car, we just had to think quick. We’re lucky with having three other team-mates all running slightly different things, we just picked the best of both worlds and it paid dividends.”

Dan Lloyd said: “I’m over the moon, to be honest. I felt a little bit disappointed when we were on the weighing scales and Jake [Hill] jumped out and everyone screamed, but other than that I’m over the moon with that. Jake was mega quick then he had the pace on me. I made a decision not to fight him and I’m pretty sure it was the right one. We just followed him.

“The car improved throughout the weekend so a big thanks to the boys at the team. I’m over the moon, we’ve had a tough year and it’s coming to the end of the season now and this is the result we’ve been looking for, we’ve done mega with the sponsors and support, and I’ve been working all year, we needed to complement that with some results and it’s just fantastic.

“If there’s anyone you don’t want to see in your mirrors, it’s Ash [Sutton]. It was just a case of not making mistakes. I got a track limits warning with three laps to go, which isn’t what you want either because that backed me up a bit more just being cautious, but I’m just so pleased we kept it together. It’s been a fantastic day and again thanks to all the team.”

Ash Sutton said: “This is what we aim for! Obviously race one and two you just have to bag those points, and when they all fall behind you it’s time to make hay while the sun shines. We did exactly that!

“Realistically, I wouldn’t have had enough laps to put a move on [Hill and Lloyd]. Around here, you’ve got to get set up quite early on. I was hunting it down and gave it a good shot in those last few laps, to pull that gap down, but I didn’t have as many laps as I needed.

“That result way key. I know those guys dropped back a little bit, so to pull 11 points out of them in that one race, just shows where we are with that championship. If we look back at where the car was when we first rolled it out, obviously we’ve got a few little things up our sleeves. The car’s phenomenal. We got it dialled in [at Donington Park] last year, so I’m buzzing to get there.”

2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 3 – Silverstone

1            Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square 22 laps
2            Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +0.698s
3            Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +1.444s
4            Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +4.474s
5            Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +4.906s
6            Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +5.269s
7            Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +5.476s
8            Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +6.146s
9            Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +7.740s
10          Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +8.731s
11          Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +8.938s
12          Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +10.652s
13          Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +11.434s
14          Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +12.965s
15          Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +13.277s
16          Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +13.566s
17          Senna PROCTOR (GBR) BTC Racing +14.111s
18          Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +15.390s
19          Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +15.487s
20          Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +16.120s
21          Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +16.273s
22          Rick PARFITT (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +20.854s
23          Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +21.147s
24          Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +21.405s
25          Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +22.992s
26          Andy NEATE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +27.816s
27          Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +28.265s
28          Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +28.534s
29          Jack MITCHELL (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +14 laps