Steve Laidlaw took a convincing first win of his 2025 TCR UK campaign after a lights to flag win from pole position, which he sealed with an extra point for fastest lap in a slam dunk performance.

Under pressure from Callum Newsham for the full distance, Laidlaw Sr found a line that would frustrate his pursuer as he lined the Cupra Leon VZ into positions that wouldn’t allow the i30N to spring up the inside in the latter part of the Silverstone National lap. Although the perfectly balanced Hyundai could pull a tighter line the pull out of the corners compared to the Leon, onto the three straights Laidlaw would pull enough of a gap to prevent Newsham from finding an opportunity.

Newsham took some wider lines as Laidlaw held his composure to ensure that he’d pick up the perfect score and the Scottish racer locked up on a couple of occasions, losing time, but even when the JHR racer closed the gap back up to the leader Laidlaw put in his best performance in TCR UK – allowing him to silence critics who’ve suggested that his position towards the front of the field has been based entirely on a chequebook.

Sam Laidlaw in a similar VZ ran to third without pressuring the leaders and in a no man’s land with an even bigger gap behind to a tight battle for fourth place. Brad Hutchison took the position ahead of Luke Sargeant and Adam Shepherd.

Shepherd kicked off with a festy opening couple of laps moving his new Leon VZ up 10 places to sixth by the end of lap one. Ahead of him the Audi of Shepherd and the Leon Competicion of Hutchison had a bit of a rub allowing Hutchison to grab the slot that he’d keep to the end as the trio ran (almost) in tandem. Shepherd pulled the trigger and forced himself past Sargeant before hitting a wall in terms of pace. He couldn’t reel in Hutchison and a slight off allowed Sargeant to capitalise and grab fifth place.

Behind the top six Will Beech put in an impressive performance in seventh ahead of Rod McGovern, George Jaxon and Mark Smith. The reverse grid line up for race two will see Smith start from pole.