Muller Claims Round 2 in Donington

The Frenchman had lost out in the day's first race after a last-lap lunge from Honda rival Matt Neal, and was clearly determined not to suffer a repeat in the second heat.

At the lights Muller stormed into the lead while Neal, starting from pole position, failed to get away well and dropped to third behind a hard-charging Rob Collard in the MG.

The first three ran nose to tail for the opening laps before Neal dived down the inside of Collard at Redgate on lap four, but just did not have enough to seize the place. The Honda and MG ran side-by-side all the way down the Craner Curves before Neal made the move stick and grabbed second at the Old Hairpin.

That incident allowed Muller some clear air at the front - and he was further boosted a few laps later when Collard grabbed second spot in a repeat of the Neal overtaking move. He dived down the inside at Redgate, braved it out down the Craner Curves and moved ahead at the Old Hairpin.

Once into second Collard began to close the gap on Muller but, despite getting right on his bumper on the final lap, he ran out of time to get past. The result was nevertheless a great one for Collard, who claimed his first ever BTCC podium.

Neal eventually finished third overall, ahead of Honda team-mate Dan Eaves and SEAT's Jason Plato - who had earlier been involved in an opening lap incident down the Craner Curves that had forced Vauxhall's Colin Turkington out of the race.

With the grid positions reversed for the third race of the day, Richard Williams will start from pole position in his Lexus, which had not even turned a wheel until the start of the race meeting.

Pos Driver            Make                        Time      Laps  Gap
 1. Yvan Muller       Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch  19:46.651  16
 2. Rob Collard       MG ZS                       19:46.830  16  + 0.179 
 3. Matt Neal         Honda Integra               19:47.951  16  + 1.300 
 4. Dan Eaves         Honda Integra               19:52.831  16  + 6.180 
 5. Jason Plato       SEAT Toledo Cupra           19:53.472  16  + 6.821 
 6. Gavin Smith       Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch  19:53.687  16  + 7.036 
 7. James Pickford    SEAT Toledo Cupra           20:00.955  16  +14.304
 8. Luke Hines        SEAT Toledo Cupra           20:01.249  16  +14.598
 9. Richard Williams  Lexus IS200                 19:56.560  15  +1 LAP 

Not Classified              
    Mark Proctor      Vauxhall Astra Coupe         9:45.416   7    D.N.F.
    Colin Turkington  Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch   3:04.445   2    D.N.F.
    James Kaye        Honda Civic Type-R          15:46.350   1    D.N.F.

Fastest Lap                  
    Rob Collard       MG ZS   1:13.229