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Plato wins race one at Knockhill

Jason Plato claimed his second British Touring Car Championship victory of the year in the first of today's three races at Knockhill

The RML Chevrolet driver made an excellent getaway from pole position and, after escaping from Gordon Shedden's Clyde Valley Racing SEAT early on, was never headed as he claimed a lights-to-flag victory.

Shedden headed an intense battle for second that included the WSR BMW of Colin Turkington, the similar Motorbase cars of Rob Collard and Jonathan Adam, and Mat Jackson's RML Chevrolet.

Turkington slid wide exiting the chicane on lap 12, allowing Collard past, but as he tried to re-take third at Duffus Dip next time around, the pair made slight contact and sent the championship leader across the gravel trap - dropping him to seventh, even behind the Vauxhall of Matt Neal, which had caught the group.

Neal soon exited the fray though, as did Collard when the pair collided heavily at Clark Curve after Collard had a huge sideways moment exiting the chicane and Neal lost control on the grass as he attempted to find a piece of clear track.

Defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi had a fine drive after starting 11th and attempted to rob Turkington of fourth at the hairpin on the final lap, but he failed and had a poor run out of the corner, allowing Adam to pass him for fifth on the run to the finish line.

Those results mean that Turkington increased his championship lead over Giovanardi from 17 points to 20.

Andrew Jordan (Vauxhall) finished seventh, but James Thompson, who had climbed up from 13th on the grid, lost eighth on the final lap as his Team Dynamics Honda ground to a halt entering the hairpin.

Stephen Jelley (WSR BMW), Paul O'Neill (Tech-Speed Honda) and Harry Vaulkhard (Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet) completed the top 10.

Pos Driver                Car             Time/Gap
 1. Jason Plato           Chevrolet     26m22.453s
 2. Gordon Shedden        SEAT             +2.409s
 3. Mat Jackson           Chevrolet        +2.873s
 4. Colin Turkington      BMW              +3.385s
 5. Jonathan Adam         BMW              +3.808s
 6. Fabrizio Giovanardi   Vauxhall         +4.160s
 7. Andrew Jordan         Vauxhall         +5.198s
 8. Stephen Jelley        BMW              +7.932s
 9. Paul O'Neill          Honda            +7.988s
10. Harry Vaulkhard       Chevrolet        +9.474s
11. Tom Chilton           Ford            +10.647s
12. Martin Johnson        Vauxhall        +19.253s
13. John George           Honda           +26.830s

Retirements

    James Thompson        Honda            26 laps
    David Pinkney         Honda            19 laps
    Rob Collard           BMW              14 laps
    Matt Neal             Vauxhall         14 laps

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