Brands Hatch BTCC: Colin Turkington wins reversed-grid finale

Rob Collard led WSR BMW team-mates Nick Foster and Turkington away from the start, but the 2009 champion had the greater pace.

Turkington dived by Foster into Paddock on lap two and then kissed Collard's car at Clearways a few laps later to carve an opening into Paddock Hill Bend.

The WSR BMW 1-2-3 was broken when Foster had to serve a drive-through penalty for starting out of position, leaving the Honda Civic Tourers of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in third and fourth.

They were able to close up thanks to a safety car after Alain Menu's BMR VW Passat and the Speedworks Toyota Avensis of Tom Ingram made contact, leaving Ingram in the wall.

On a charge after the restart was Jason Plato, who took Adam Morgan's Mercedes for fifth with a move at Paddock.

He soon duplicated the effort on Shedden to snatch fourth, but found Neal a more defensive prospect as both closed on Collard, now struggling on his soft rubber.

The Honda and MG both made it by the BMW with three laps to go, but catching all three were the leading hard tyre runners: Mat Jackson, Menu and Jack Goff.

Menu managed to overtake Jackson and then overcame Shedden going onto the final lap to complete his BTCC comeback weekend with fifth, just behind Collard.

Fabrizio Giovanardi finished 16th after an off on lap one, while Andrew Jordan struggled to 13th to retain a two-point lead over Neal. Turkington's 25th BTCC victory puts him just one point behind Neal.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Colin Turkington     WSR BMW            24m21.546s
 2.  Matt Neal            Honda                 +1.114s
 3.  Jason Plato          MG                    +1.446s
 4.  Rob Collard          WSR BMW               +2.432s
 5.  Alain Menu           BMR VW                +2.660s
 6.  Gordon Shedden       Honda                 +3.378s
 7.  Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford        +3.550s
 8.  Jack Goff            BMR Vauxhall          +3.803s
 9.  Dave Newsham         AmD Ford              +6.395s
10.  Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes      +8.728s
11.  Rob Austin           RAR Audi              +9.632s
12.  Sam Tordoff          MG                   +10.173s
13.  Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda       +10.761s
14.  James Cole           UA Toyota            +11.184s
15.  Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi             +13.357s
16.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford       +13.548s
17.  Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford       +19.228s
18.  Marc Hynes           MG                   +19.461s
19.  Nick Foster          WSR BMW              +19.838s
20.  Robb Holland         Rotek Audi           +20.336s
21.  Simon Belcher        Speedworks Toyota    +24.898s
22.  Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton         +26.349s
23.  Warren Scott         BMR Vauxhall         +31.083s
24.  Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet       +1 lap
25.  Glynn Geddie         Speedworks Toyota     +3 laps
26.  Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet         +5 laps

Retirements:

     Aron Smith           BMR VW                15 laps
     Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota     11 laps
     Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota        6 laps
     Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda         0 laps