Neal: title still a possibility

The reigning champions is currently 53 points behind championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi heading into this weekend's races at Donington, but he has said that he is enjoying not having the pressure of leading the title race this year.

Giovanardi has spent the first half of the season battling for the championship lead with Jason Plato, and Neal believes that he will be able to make up ground as they start looking towards the title battle.

"I don't think they'll be worried about me at the moment, but we are in a 'no lose' situation," said Neal.

"They'll be worried about their own deal, even if I start finishing in front of them. We are going into each race flat out.

"When you are in that (championship leading) situation, you do start thinking about settling for points more. We are trying to take as many points as possible, and we haven't got a championship to lose like Jason or Fabrizio."

Neal also believes that Colin Turkington will be able to close up on the leaders now that Team RAC are getting to grips with their BMW 320si.

"As much as I believe I've got an outside chance, Colin is only a few points behind me," he added. "It will take luck and consistency from here on in.

"If Colin and I hadn't retired from race three at Oulton then we'd have each taken ten points from Jason during the course of the day and suddenly we'd have been a lot closer to him."