Neal wins race 1 at Mondello Park

Neal made a strong start to launch his Team Dynamics Honda Integra-R into the lead, pursued by SEAT's Jason Plato.

Neal pulled away in the early stages, but Plato was never out of touch throughout the 14-lap race, and closed on to Neal's tail in the closing laps.

However, Plato was unable to launch a serious challenge and had to settle for second place by half a second. "I was pushing hard," he admitted. "There wasn't a lot left towards the end of the race."

Former double BTCC champion James Thompson made it two SEATs on the podium with third place, despite carrying 45kg of success ballast through his status as championship leader.

Colin Turkington, driving the lead RAC-backed MG ZS, harried Thompson throughout the race and attempted a pass on the outside on several occasions.

Scot Gordon Shedden, driving the second Dynamics Integra, took fifth despite being pitched into the air on the run to the first corner.

Shedden touched the fast-starting Fabrizio Giovanardi's Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch just moments into the race, and was fortunate to finish after suffering steering damage in the incident.

This allowed Tom Chilton to nip past his Vauxhall team-mate into the first corner. The Italian spent much of the race attempting to find a way back past Chilton, but dropped back in the closing stages and had to settle for seventh place ahead of the third Vauxhall of local ace Gavin Smith.

Rob Collard, in the second MG, had been involved in their scrap in the first part of the race, only to retire at the end of lap seven with an engine problem.

Mike Jordan took ninth in his ex-Matt Neal Integra after a close battle with the Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R of James Kaye.

David Pinkney had battled with the pair in his Motorbase Performance Integra, but had to settle for 13th after a late-race spin.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time
 1.  Matt Neal            Honda Integra         25:04.534
 2.  Jason Plato          SEAT Leon             +   0.500
 3.  James Thompson       SEAT Leon             +   9.678
 4.  Colin Turkington     MG ZS                 +  10.230
 5.  Gordon Shedden       Honda Integra         +  15.285
 6.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  18.797
 7.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  21.301
 8.  Gavin Smith          Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  21.792
 9.  Mike Jordan          Honda Integra         +  28.453
10.  James Kaye           Honda Civic Type R    +  28.795
11.  Jason Hughes         MG ZS                 +  38.604
12.  Mark Proctor         Honda Civic Type R    +  39.655
13.  David Pinkney        Honda Integra         +  47.878
14.  Fiona Leggate        Vauxhall Astra Coupe  +  55.211
15.  Martyn Bell          BMW 320i E46          +1:20.661

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver               Team                 Laps
     Robert Collard       MG ZS                 6

Fastest lap: Matt Neal, 1:46.094 on lap 2