Mondello Feature: Muller bounces back

The action started even before the start. As the cars sat on the grid with a space on the front row where the unwell Colin Turkington's Team Atomic Kitten MG should have been, rain started to fall and the start was delayed. Before the second attempt to start, all the top BTC Touring runners had swapped their slicks for rain tyres, but the top three on the grid, James Thompson, Matt Neal and Gareth Howell, did it in the pits at the end of the first or second green flag laps and had to start at the back. All that meant that fifth qualifier Anthony Reid was effectively on pole for the rolling start in his works MG.

Reid was a contender in the early laps, but he eventually came under serious pressure from Muller, who'd only qualified 12th after a transmission problem the day before, but made short work of the traffic. Muller hounded the MG, but met stern resistance and decided to bide his time and aim to pass over the pitstops. Those came pretty early as the track dried rapidly. Thompson was first to stop, but Muller didn't leave it much longer and looked to have made up enough time to demote Reid by the time he stopped. When the Reid stop was a slow one Muller was confirmed in the lead.

Second though was the flying Thompson, ahead of Andy Priaulx, who'd survived a run through the gravel at Hewlett Packard and made up time with a swift and well-timed stop. That's when the Safety car intervened, twice.

When racing finally got under way again, the works Vauxhalls escaped as the mayhem got going behind. Reid jumped Priaulx on the run up to Hewlett Packard, where the pair ran side by side. Going into turn three there was contact and Matt Neal joined in to make it three abreast. A few tit-for-tat hits later the Priaulx Honda was out and Reid was embarking on an epic defence of third place as Neal crawled all over him and Paul O'Neill watched the fun from close behind.

The final drama came on the closing corners of the last lap. Another series of biffs concluded with Reid on the grass at the penultimate corner and Neal in third place. O'Neill almost nicked fourth off Reid too, but the Scot fought back into the last corner.

After the flag, Reid stomped off muttering about protests, as his team boss Dick Bennetts commented that he'd never seen his man so agitated, but Neal wasn't so sure it was such a big deal. "He was smiling in parc ferme. I did tell him that I didn't mean it to get so rough, but I've seen much worse."

Alan Morrison saved something for Honda with sixth place, while Aaron Slight put in a strong run to take eighth overall and the Independents' Cup after missing most of qualifying and the sprint race.

Neal now lead the standings by just a point from Thompson, who has been docked five for using a fifth engine - just four are allowed over the season under the series' cost-cutting rules.

Spencer Marsh took the BTC Production win after a real race of attrition that saw all the other usual top men either in the gravel or retiring.


Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1h02m39.376s 62.51mph
James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1h02m40.342s 62.49mph
Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1h02m45.126s 62.41mph
Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 1h02m45.454s 62.41mph
Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1h02m45.773s 62.40mph
Alan Morrison (Honda Civic Type-R) 1h02m46.869s 62.38mph
Warren Hughes (MG ZS) 1h02m47.125s 62.38mph
Aaron Slight (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1h02m47.742s 62.37mph
Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) 1h02m48.239s 62.36mph
Gareth Howell (MG ZS) 1h02m49.680s 6234mph


Spencer Marsh (Honda Accord) 1h03m20.687s 61.83mph
Jim Edwards Jr (Honda Accord) 1h03m23.203s 61.79mph
Peter Cate (Honda Accord) 1h03m24.775s 61.76mph