Plato takes first BTCC diesel win

After trailing Tom Onslow-Cole for much of a race that saw a delayed start due to a glitch with the starting lights and two safety car periods, Plato nipped through as the Vauxhall driver slid wide at McLeans with four laps to go and went on to win by 1.309 seconds.

It was Plato's first win since the championship visited Donington last year and the 39th of his career, lifting him to within 14 points of the championship lead in the process.

Polesitter Onslow-Cole was beaten to the first corner by Colin Turkington, but the Team RAC driver was handed a drive-through penalty for blatantly jumping the start, which was signalled by flag following the light failure.

Once the Ulsterman was out of the way and the field were released following a safety car period for a crash between John George and Rob Collard at the Old Hairpin, Onslow-Cole simply drove away from the pack.

His 2.5-second lead was swallowed up though when the safety car was deployed for a second time for another incident at the Old Hairpin.

Mat Jackson, who had done a wonderful job to bring his BMW Dealer UK car up from 14th on the grid, made contact with Tom Chilton on lap 10 while battling for fifth, resulting in both cars spinning into the gravel and some finger-pointing between the pair.

Upon the second restart Onslow-Cole lost his lead and dropped as low as fourth before re-passing Gordon Shedden's Team Halfords Honda late in the race to complete the podium.

Andew Jordan made a fantastic late move to claim fifth place at the final corner, winning the independents' category in the process in his Eurotech-John Guest Honda. He passed Steven Kane, who been racing with Stephen Jelley for the position on the last lap before the latter ended up in the gravel at the Old Hairpin.

Behind Kane, Adam Jones and Fabrizio Giovanardi followed with the Italian - who went off-track on lap two trying to avoid a near-collision between Plato, Shedden and Darren Turner - keeping his seven-point championship lead, albeit over Neal now rather than Jackson.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Jason Plato          SEAT       25:08.830
 2.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    +  1.309
 3.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall    +  1.602
 4.  Gordon Shedden       Honda       +  3.354
 5.  Andrew Jordan        Honda       +  6.585
 6.  Steven Kane          BMW         +  6.858
 7.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +  7.083
 8.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    +  7.390
 9.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +  7.912
10.  Mike Jordan          Honda       +  8.805
11.  Jason Hughes         Honda       +  9.055
12.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   + 10.688
13.  Chris Stockton       SEAT        + 15.014
14.  Martyn Bell          Vauxhall    + 16.179
15.  Michael Doyle        Honda       + 20.876
16.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall    + 21.407
17.  Stuart Oliver        SEAT        + 22.973
18.  Alan Taylor          Honda       + 27.078
19.  Darren Turner        SEAT        + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Driver               Car        Laps
     Stephen Jelley       BMW        17
     Tom Chilton          Honda      9
     Mat Jackson          BMW        9
     Matt Allison         Chevrolet  2
     Rob Collard          BMW        1
     John George          Honda      1