Neal not ruling out title fight

The Briton's new Team Halfords Honda Civic has not completed much testing mileage in the run-up to the campaign - and reliability fears were heightened earlier this week when a gearbox problem stopped him during a test.

But despite the difficulties, Neal remains bullish ahead of the start of the new season at Brands Hatch this weekend.

"I think the others should write me off at their peril," said Neal, who is aiming to become the first driver for more than 20 years to win three titles on the trot.

"I'd have to put myself down as a bit of an outsider at the moment because we've got a brand new car with very little mileage on it, but on the other side of the coin it looks like a fantastic motor so I could argue both cases.

"OK, we've only done one shakedown, one day at a damp Brands Hatch split into sessions and half a day at Pembrey when the gearbox broke.

"The team is learning about the car all the time, but at least before the gearbox packed up we'd started to concentrate on fine tuning it. The potential in this car is massive - it's just up to us to get it out."