Silverstone 1: Thompson inherits victory

However, the race belonged to Honda's Matt Neal, who enjoyed a lead of two seconds until he was forced to retire with just two laps to go, handing victory to the reigning champion.

Starting from the front row, Neal and Thompson battled fiercely in the opening laps, with the Honda star taking over at the front from the pole-sitter on lap two. Both made their compulsory pit-stops on lap 11, after which Neal began to pull away, until he suffered a disastrous mechanical failure on lap 21.

Despite running full success ballast, championship leader Yvan Muller came through to finish second, giving the works VX Racxing team another one-two finish, albeit a slightly fortuitous one.

Colin Turkington finished third to give MG its first podium finish of the year, although the honour should have gone to team-mate Warren Hughes, who reitred from the race with just two laps to go.

The surviving Honda's of Alan Morrison and Tom Chilton rounded out the top five, ahead of Gavin Pyper, the top privateer in sixth in his GA Motorsports Vauxhall Astra. Paul O'Neill finished seventh in the third works Astra, with James Kaye eighth.

Luke Hines took his first victory in the production class, holding off class leader Michael Bentwood for the honour.

James Thompson (VX Racing) Vauxhall Astra 38m15.108s
Yvan Muller (VX Racing) Vauxhall Astra +1.925s
Colin Turkington (West Surrey Racing) MG ZS +9.451s
Alan Morrison (Arena International) Honda Civic +12.892s
Tom Chilton (Arena International) Honda Civic +16.027s
Gavin Pyper (GA Motorsport) Vauxhall Astra +23.819s
Paul O'Neill (VX Racing) Vauxhall Astra +29.378s
James Kaye (Synchro Motorsport) Honda Civic +31.513s