Donington Park BTCC: Matt Neal wins wild finale for Honda

The Honda driver made the most of a safety car and a high-speed clash between erstwhile leader Josh Cook and the charging Aron Smith to grab the initiative late on and fend off MG's Andrew Jordan for victory.

Rob Collard led the field into Redgate for the first time after beating reverse-grid poleman Cook off the line, but Power Maxed Racing's Cook was soon harrying the WSR BMW for first.

Cook got the Chevrolet ahead of Collard at the chicane at the end of the third lap, and the two ran in tandem clear of a huge battle behind for the first half of the race.

Jason Plato initially headed the chasing pack but the race-one winner struggled on the soft tyres and slipped behind Neal and BMR team-mate Smith, who was storming through from 12th on the grid and then grabbed third from Neal.

The fight, which also included the third VW of Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan's Ciceley Mercedes, Sam Tordoff's WSR BMW, the second MG of Jack Goff and Gordon Shedden's Honda, was always likely to yield contact.

It finally came with significance when Goff passed Tordoff on the back straight but tagged the BMW at the chicane and sent them both across the gravel into the barriers.

That brought out the safety car, eradicating the advantage Cook and Collard had at the front.

At the restart Smith wasted little time taking second, going around the outside of Collard at Redgate, while behind Jordan forced his way past Plato.

Smith looked set to make it a clean sweep of BMR victories as he attacked Cook for the lead, and appeared to have the move done in the same way he passed Collard.

Cook, though, fought back through the Craners and the two touched and flew across the grass before rejoining right in the middle of Collard, Neal, Jordan and Plato but somehow avoiding a major collision.

That allowed Collard to lead briefly, but Neal got inside at Redgate with two laps remaining and Jordan followed him by through the Craners, tagging Neal in the process.

Both survived and Jordan - who had fallen behind the Honda when Neal tipped him into a slide through the gravel at McLeans early on - attacked again, but Dave Newsham's beached PMR Cruze at the chicane prevented a last-gasp move.

Shedden came through the madness behind to grab third, ahead of Collard, while Aiden Moffat produced a superb drive to grab fifth from Smith on the last lap having started down in 16th in his Mercedes.

Cook wound up seventh, just ahead of Plato, as Eurotech's Martin Depper grabbed his best-ever BTCC result in ninth ahead of Tom Ingram when Turkington, on the soft tyres, was bumped to 11th.

RESULTS - 19 LAPS:

LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: