Jason Plato took a commanding victory in race one at Oulton Park ahead of his young team-mate Sam Tordoff - securing the team's first ever one-two finish.

The MG duo got away cleanly from the front row and despite Tordoff having to hold off an early challenge from Gordon Shedden, they both maintained position throughout the 15 lap contest. Similarly Shedden took a fairly comfortable third place ahead of Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington.

Despite the steady start from the opening two rows on the grid there was plenty of action behind as Turkingtons BMW and the Toyota of Frank Wrathall touched on the way down to Old Hall for the first time. They eventually made it through the corner cleanly, as did the entire field, but Wrathall pitted a lap later with an unrelated issue.

The Seat Leon of Warren Scott and Ford Focus of Aaron Smith were next to face problemsboth retiring into the pits early on.

The front-running action began to hot up when Andrew Jordan tapped second row starter Dave Newsham in the fight for fourth on lap four. The Avensis of Newsham held on but it was only a brief respite as Jordan blasted by just three laps later.

The lower end of the top-ten order produced its fair share of drama too when Mat Jackson and Tom Onslow-Cole touched in the battle for eighth. The VW Passat dropped back immediately after slight damage caused bodywork to rub on the rear right tyre, whilst Jacksons Ford Focus ploughed on up the order.

Lea Wood had his S2000 Vauxhall Vectra among the lower echelons of the NGTC-spec cars in the first half of the race and was held up after being tapped by the Vauxhall Insignia of James Cole at Island Hairpin. Almost simultaneously ahead of them, Coles team-mate Jack Goff nipped by the struggling Audi of Rob Austin.

Newsham began to struggle in fifth place during the latter half of the race and was passed by Turkington, Matt Neal and M.Jackson in three separate manoeuvresTurkington eventually making his move stick after contact with the Toyota ahead of him. He pulled away to pressure home Jordan at the finish while M.Jackson encouragingly brought his Airwaves Racing machine to within six tenths of a second from championship leader Neal.

Newsham held on to eighth ahead of Ciceley Racings Adam Morgan and a spirited drive from Rob Collard. He narrowly avoided disaster after Onslow-Cole dipped a wheel on the grass on the run to Druids on lap 11 and the pair touched as the Passat slid wide. Onslow-Cole recovered from the resulting trip through the gravel but eventually had to settle for 15th and the final point at the finish. The four places ahead of him went to Jeff Smith, Nick Foster, Rob Austin and Daniel Welch after a last lap shuffle in the order.

The most dramatic action on the final tour, however, was left to the fight for honours in the Jack Sears Trophy. Following Woods earlier contact, Liam Griffin began to haul in his rival during the latter stages of the contest. He eyed his opportunity on the run to Island Hairpin for the final time and nipped through by running straight on at Knickerbrook. He incredibly crossed the line just 0.127s ahead of Wood but Griffin's joy was short lived after a post-race one second penalty for 'gaining an advantage' during the move meant the result was reversed.

There was no doubting the overall race winner, however, and that was MGs Plato, who has now closed in to within three points of Neal at the summit of the standings. After ten races of this 30-race campaign, just 27 points cover the top five drivers.

"The BTCC is a very competitive game, so to get this result for the team is great," said the two-time champion. "I think the most positive thing to take from this is that weve definitely made a step forward with the car. Our main rivals Honda are a great team, but I think if the pendulum does swing back in their direction in future it wont swing back as far. Its thanks in no small part to Sams contribution to the team, which is excellent. We tend to like the same things in the car so we make progress twice as fast. Hes doing a great job for the team, and this was a fantastic result."

The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will be back on track at 14:34 for race two of three - with all the action broadcast live on ITV4/HD.

2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car ChampionshipOulton ParkRace 1

1 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) 15 Laps2 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +1.107 3 Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing) +3.167 4 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +4.104 5 Colin Turkington (eBay Motors) +4.563 6 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) +10.946 7 Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing) +11.551 8 Dave Newsham (Speedworks Motorsport) +15.381 9 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +23.90910 Robert Collard (eBay Motors) +23.942 11 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +24.308 12 Nick Foster (eBay Motors) +29.815 13 Rob Austin (WIX Racing) +31.86914 Daniel Welch (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +32.030 15 Tom Onslow-Cole (PPCGB/Kraftwerk Racing) +33.044 16 Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing) +36.220 17 Will Bratt (Rob Austin Racing) +36.608 18 James Cole (RCIB Insurance Racing) +37.550 19 Lea Wood (Wheel Heaven / Houseman Racing) +44.297 20 Liam Griffin (Addison Lee Motorbase) +45.170 21 Aaron Mason (AmDTuning.com) +51.291 22 David Nye (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +54.394 23 Frank Wrathall (Dynojet) +1 Lap 24 Ollie Jackson (Speedworks Motorsport) +2 Laps

Not Classified- Aron Smith (Airwaves Racing) +10 Laps - Warren Scott (Team BMR Restart) +13 Laps