Rockingham BTCC: Mat Jackson wins for Motorbase Ford with puncture

Motorbase driver Jackson led away from pole position and his Ford Focus was never headed as he first pulled clear of fellow front-row starter Aron Smith, and later Gordon Shedden.

As Jackson headed Smith into Deene for the first time, the slow-starting Tom Ingram was swamped from fourth and dropped behind the two Hondas of Shedden and Matt Neal, and Plato.

Ingram rebuffed an attack from Josh Cook but the Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze tried to dive by again into Yentwood and hit the Speedworks Toyota Avensis.

That sent a sideways Ingram into Plato, whose Team BMR Volkswagen CC suffered what looked like a broken toe-link and crabbed back to the pits.

The erstwhile points leader rejoined the action three laps down in a repaired VW that was quick enough to bag 12th on the grid for race two.

At the front, Jackson eased clear as Smith came under attack from Jack Goff, but Shedden was into third by the third lap and soon after had dispatched Smith as well.

He briefly cut into the two-second gap to the leader but made no further progress, and Jackson extended his advantage by the race's end for a 22nd BTCC victory.

It was not a clear run to the flag, though - Jackson reported "burning rubber" two laps from the end as he suffered a front-right puncture, though it did not go completely flat until after the flag.

Shedden, who set the fastest lap of the race to take pole for the second encounter, was a lonely second to move to the summit of the championship standings, while Smith kept Goff at bay to complete the podium.

Neal had looked set to round out the top five but suffered his own late puncture, which dropped the three-time champion from fifth to eighth on the last lap.

That allowed the recovering Ingram to take fifth after managing his soft tyres well, while Andrew Jordan rose from ninth to sixth in his MG.

A muted Colin Turkington, Neal, Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff completed the top 10.

RESULTS - 16 LAPS:

RACE TWO STARTING GRID:

Set by fastest race one laps