Silverstone BTCC: Jason Plato dominates race one in MG one-two

The Triple Eight MG star led from start to finish from pole position, but escaped a first-corner near-miss with team-mate Sam Tordoff, who simply admitted he lost control of the rear of his car.

That sent Plato wide in avoidance and meant Tordoff was prone to attack from WSR BMW's Colin Turkington.

Turkington grabbed second place at Becketts on the opening tour, but Tordoff snatched the position back on lap three exiting Luffield, just before the safety car boards appeared to deal with debris from a clash between Will Bratt, Nick Foster and Andy Neate at Woodcote.

At the restart, Plato eased away from Tordoff to win by 1.4 seconds in a convincing MG one-two.

The star of the race was Matt Neal, who stormed to finish third from ninth on the grid.

He carved across points leader Andrew Jordan's bows off the startline, and gained spots when Dave Newsham, who made an outrageously bold lunge for second, and Jack Goff both slid wide at Brooklands.

Neal then pulled superb passes on Frank Wrathall, Rob Collard and Turkington, all at Becketts, to seal a place on the podium.

Turkington fought back at the finish, missing out on third by just 0.008s as Neal ran short of fuel exiting the final corner.

Collard finished fifth, ahead of Jordan, who came through to sixth from 10th on the grid.

Adam Morgan battled past Aron Smith for seventh, followed by charging team-mate Mat Jackson, and the recovering Newsham.

Reigning champion Gordon Shedden finished 11th.

Results - 25 laps:

Pos  Driver            Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Jason Plato       MG                 26m58.881s
 2.  Sam Tordoff       MG                    +1.477s
 3.  Matt Neal         Honda                 +6.072s
 4.  Colin Turkington  WSR BMW               +6.080s
 5.  Rob Collard       WSR BMW               +6.453s
 6.  Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda        +7.114s
 7.  Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota        +7.511s
 8.  Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford        +8.206s
 9.  Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford        +8.494s
10.  Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota     +9.227s
11.  Gordon Shedden    Honda                +13.243s
12.  Rob Austin        Austin Audi          +13.398s
13.  Daniel Welch      Welch Proton         +14.092s
14.  Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota       +14.381s
15.  Tom Onslow-Cole   Motorbase Ford       +14.732s
16.  Warren Scott      BMR VW               +19.698s
17.  Howard Fuller     Hard VW              +22.463s
18.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda       +30.327s
19.  Ollie Jackson     Speedworks Toyota    +30.475s
20.  Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall        +32.789s*
21.  Aiden Moffat      Hard VW              +33.068s
22.  Will Bratt        Austin Audi            +1 lap

Retirements:

     Liam Griffin      Motorbase Ford        15 laps*
     Jack Goff         Hard Vauxhall         11 laps
     Andy Neate        IP Chevrolet            1 lap
     Nick Foster       WSR BMW                 1 lap

* S2000