Plato heads SEAT one-two

Polesitter Plato never managed to pull away from Turner and eventually claimed his third win of the season by only half a second. That though, was enough to pull himself up to third in the championship.

Tom Chilton made a brilliant start to move up from fifth on the grid to third by the first corner, but the Team Halfords driver couldn't get his Honda Civic by either of the SEATs, which were untouchable down the straights thanks to the superior top-end power of their turbodiesel engines.

Chilton's team-mate Gordon Shedden followed him home in fourth with Colin Turkington winning the Independents class (and taking the championship lead from Adam Jones) in sixth in his Team RAC BMW.

Tom Onslow-Cole was the best Vauxhall driver in sixth, ahead of team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi. The Italian made a bad start from fourth, but put a good move on Steven Kane's Motorbase BMW at Riches on lap 10 to snatch seventh.

Giovanardi leads the championship by an increased margin of 26 points from his other team-mate Matt Neal.

Neal, who was involved in a frenetic five-car scrap during most of the race, broke clear and passed Mike Jordan for tenth and the final point as the cars powered away from the Russell chicane on the final lap.

Five laps were spent behind the safety car as marshals cleared up the wreckage of Martyn Bell's Arkas Vauxhall. Bell slammed into the Sear tyre barriers on lap two while attempting to avoid the spinning Honda of John George in front of him.

Results to follow.

Pos  Driver               Team        Time
01.  Jason Plato          SEAT        27:38.560
02.  Darren Turner        SEAT        +0.583s
03.  Tom Chilton          Honda       +1.364s
04.  Gordon Shedden       Honda       +1.650s
05.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +2.886s
06.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall    +4.515s
07.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    +7.444s
08.  Steven Kane          BMW         +10.897s
09.  Robert Collard       BMW         +12.231s
10.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    +17.795s
11.  Mike Jordan          Honda       +17.809s
12.  Stephen Jelley       BMW         +21.861s
13.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +22.419s
14.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   +24.208s
15.  Mat Jackson          BMW         +34.076s
16.  Jason Hughes         MG          +41.826s
17.  John George          Honda       +50.492s
18.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall    +51.952s

Retirements:

Driver                    Car             Laps
Andrew Jordan             Honda       +20 Laps
Martyn Bell               Vauxhall    +20 Laps
Michael Doyle             Honda       +20 Laps
Alan Taylor               Honda       +21 laps

Fastest lap Darren Turner 1m:11.711s