BTCC Snetterton: Turkington keeps hold of win after stewards probe

The Northern Irishman started second on the grid and pursued pole man, Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type-R driver Gordon Shedden, into the opening corner.

The pair set off on a great fight with Honda man Shedden hugging the inside line to try and maintain his advantage.

Turkington took until lap eight to unseat the Civic by getting a stronger exit from the Agostini hairpin.

He was then able to pull away at ease in his Subaru Levorg and eventually crossed the line 2.7 seconds clear of the Scotsman.

Turkington's fast start was then looked at by officials, who later cleared him of jumping the start.

"That is a result I didn't expect today," said Turkington. "I could seen Gordon was struggling and it was getting worse and worse each lap.

"I hammered him while I could and then he ran a little while at the hairpin and I got the switchback.

"I am pretty sure I was OK at the start, but we will wait and see."

Behind them, Mat Jackson was well in touch in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, as the team celebrated its 300th race in the category.

Third-place starter Adam Morgan had been jumped away from the start line in his Ciceley Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class by Ash Sutton's MG, but the order was restored after three laps and Morgan came home in fourth.

Sutton and MG team-mate Josh Cook, who was also running well inside the top 10, both suffered punctures on their front left tyres, which ruled them out of contention.

That allowed Jason Plato to finish in fifth place in the second Team BMR Subaru home. He has battled hard to unseat Tom Ingram's Toyota Avensis ahead of him and succeeded with a strong move around the outside of the Agostini hairpin on lap 11.

Ingram was sixth, ahead of championship leader Sam Tordoff's WSR BMW 125i M Sport. He was followed by Matt Neal's Honda and the other two Subarus of team principal Warren Scott and James Cole.

Andrew Jordan, who had started at the very back of the grid in his Motorbase Focus after a power steering problem in qualifying, climbed to 14th despite being pushed on to the grass on lap one.

He finished two places in front of Rob Collard's BMW, who was second in the points coming in to the event.

RESULT - 12 LAPS: