BTCC Season 2025 – Brands Hatch GP Race 1
Hi and welcome to a beautiful day here at Brands Hatch with a largely blue sky with some fluffy white clouds in this corner of Kent. The wind was still blowing a gale, but for Aiden starting in 12th and Charles in 8th, hopes were high!
Aiden started Race 1 on the medium tyre and Charles on the soft and there was real drama as Daryl Deleon came into the pits from pole position on the formation lap to leave the P1 place on the grid vacant.
Lap 1 saw a huge midfield battle involving Charles, Aiden and 7 other cars. Charles was up to 6th and Aiden 10th. On lap 2, Charles was able to take title hopeful Tom Ingram for 5th, whilst Aidan suffered a spin.
On lap 3, Charles benefitted from a battle between Rowbottom and Morgan to take 3rd, costing him 8 places. Aiden was able to get a place back on lap 4 to be up behind former team mate Dexter Patterson.
Lap 6 saw Charles putting in the fastest lap of the race as he closed on the leaders, when Aiden was shown the mechanical warning flag for loose body work and had to pit. To make matters even more testing for Aiden, he was then given a drive through penalty on lap 9 for speeding in the pit lane.
With 4 laps to go, Adam Morgan got past Charles for 3rd in a dubious move at Surtees which saw him push Charles off the track which may be reviewed later.
At the end, Charles was 4th with the extra point for fastest lap, whilst Aiden was crestfallen to be in 20th, one place behind fellow BMW driver Jake Hill. Race 2 will now see Charles in P4 and Aiden coming through from P20 on the grid, but Aiden still has the soft tyres to play with!