Croft Feature: Muller bounces back

Muller lifted the lead from poleman James Thompson midway round the first lap. Thompson was running 66kg heavier than his team-mate under the series success-ballast system and saw no point in holding him up. "We're very evenly matched," explained Thompson, "though I reckon I'd just got the edge here - but with 66kg there was no way..." Thompson's target of second place soon disappeared too though, a misfire slowing him and eventually leading to retirement.

Muller's run to victory wasn't entirely straightforward either. "It was very hard," he said. "First the water temperature was very high all race, so I thought: 'not again,' then I pitted at the same time as lots of others and got badly held up when I tried to rejoin." All that put him a good 15 car lengths behind Priaulx once they'd both stopped.

For a while it looked as though Priaulx might be able to stay ahead, but with a rear bumper flying after he'd clipped a tyre stack, and tyre-smoke billowing into the cockpit until it wore away a bit, he started to look vulnerable. When the Honda was slowed by a BTC production-class Alfa in the chicane, Muller took his chance and dived by at Tower to secure the win.

Priaulx stayed in touch and was delighted with his place. "It can only get better from here," he said after the Civic's much more competitive performance in Yorkshire,

Anthony Reid took a solid third, though he reckoned that his engine wasn't performing as well as it had in the earlier sprint race. Dan Eaves put in an excellent run to be fourth in the Team Halfords Peugeot and first of the independents, though Colin Turkington in the MG kept him under pressure to the end.

In BTC production, Norman Simon made it a double in the BMW. "I'm very happy, because it's not a circuit that suits the BMW. We had the luck here, where I didn't at Mondello last time out."

James Kaye was a solid second, despite carrying more success ballast, and running briefly off-course at Clervaux in traffic. Spencer Marsh was third home, while Gavin Pyper's Alfa didn't recover from the overheating it suffered in the sprint.

Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 36m47.084s 86.73mph
Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R) 36m48.527s 86.67mph
Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 36m55.229s 86.41mph
Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 37m07.315s 85.94mph
Colin Turkington (MG ZS) 37m08.297s 85.90mph
Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 37m09.637s 85.85mph
David Leslie (Proton Impian) 37m17.710s 85.54mph
Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) 37m25.120s 85.26mph
Gareth Howell (MG ZS) 37m45.166s 84.51mph
Aaron Slight (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 37m46.766s 84.45mph

Norman Simon (BMW 320i) 24 laps 82.23mph
James Kaye (Honda Civic Type-R) 24 laps 82.13mph
Spencer Marsh (Honda Accord) 24 laps 81.51mph