Menu wins Feature race

Leading into the first corner, he built up a commanding lead and crossed the finish line 22.4 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

'I've always said the car was competitive,' Menu said. 'We should have won before, at Brands Hatch or Oulton Park. The car is going great.'

This was his 30th victory in the BTCC.

Behind Menu, the situation was less clear-cut.

The safety car was brought out after Matt Neal and James Thompson tangled on the first lap, taking both out of the race.

Meanwhile, Gabriele Tarquini had two drive-through penalties for a false start and taking his penalty during a safety car period.

He recovered from last to seventh, setting the fastest lap in the process.

With Menu a runaway leader, the race's action was focused on the group of cars in second to seventh places, who were lapping nose to tail for most of the 42 laps.

Championship leader Laurent Aiello, fighting to pass Plato for second, lost time at Duffus Dip and let Bouillon through.

He regained third at the half-way point, moving up to second when Plato went off at Duffus, before making a mistake himself at the same place and dropping down to sixth.

This promoted Peter Kox, in the Honda Accord, up to second, with David Leslie moving into third place.

'It was an exciting race,' David Leslie said. 'I just had to bide my time to see what happened. It's a good result for the Championship battle - good for everybody.'

Although Kox claimed Honda's second podium spot of the day, he was not particularly satisfied.

'We made a big mistake in qualifying, so although we had a good race and made places up, we really should have won. I'm rather disappointed.'

Honda remain second in the Manufacturers Championship behind Nissan.

With Matt Neal out of contention, it was Mark Blair, driving the ADR Motorsport Vauxhall Vectra, who won the Michelin Cup for Independents.

'It feels really good to be up here again,' Blair said. 'We only win when Matt doesn't finish, which is a bit of a damper. But we've got to the bottom of our engine problems, which is good.'

Aiello was later disqualified after being adjudged to have nudged Plato off.