Race 1: Thompson's opener

Thompson made a great start and made a break at the front, pulling out a 2sec lead over Neal by lap two. But following the third tour, when the lead extended to 2.3secs, Neal began cutting in to Thompson's advantage, bringing the gap down to 1.4secs by lap seven.

Neal made a crucial mistake at the chicane on lap eight, however, dropping him almost 3secs behind Thompson, but once again the Team Dynamics star clawed back into the Vauxhall flyer's lead. He failed to make his superior lap times count, however, falling just 0.6secs short at the finish.

"I really pushed hard in the opening stages because I wanted the extra point for fastest lap and got it, but it took a lot out of the tyres," said Thompson. "Matt was really catching me towards the end and given one more lap he might have had me. We know the Astra handles ballast very well, so I'm not too worried. I think it will be game of cat and mouse in the next two races."

Yvan Muller (Vauxhall) had to settle for a distant third, almost 8secs off Thompson's pace. He got the better of an early battle with MG's Anthony Reid, who finished fourth.

Dan Eaves passed the SEAT of Jason Plato to finish fifth in his Team Dynamics Honda, while Plato fell back into the clutches of team-mate Robb Huff and Michael Bentwood (Vauxhall). Plato would eventually finish eighth after failing in his bid to out-slow Proton's Shaun Watson-Smith to the line to give him a front row start spot for race two. Honda's Tom Chilton will have that honour after dropping out of fifth when he straightlined the chicane and damaged the Civic's splitter.

MG's Colin Turkington lost out due to an early spin, while VX Racing's third car, driven by Luke Hines, suffered a puncture.


1 James Thompson, Vauxhall Astra Coupe, 21m11.618s
2 Matt Neal, Honda Civic Type-R, +0.625s
3 Yvan Muller, Vauxhall Astra Coupe, +7.949s
4 Anthony Reid, MG ZS, +9.309s
5 Dan Eaves, Honda Civic, 1m18.105s
6 Rob Huff, SEAT Toledo Cupra, 1m17.845s