Snetterton BTCC: Plato tussles with Turkington to take second win

Turkington's WSR BMW jumped poleman Plato at the start to lead into Riches, but the safety car was soon scrambled after Alain Menu's BMR Volkswagen Passat and the Ciceley Mercedes of Adam Morgan clashed, putting the VW in the wall.

At the restart, at the end of lap four, Plato applied pressure to the BMW, finally making a move down the inside at Montreal on lap nine of 15.

Turkington came back at the MG for a few laps, before falling back to take the runner-up spot 1.6 seconds down.

Gordon Shedden's works Honda Civic Tourer came through from seventh to complete the podium.

The 2012 champion rose to fifth during the dramatic opening lap, then overtook Morgan's A-class for fourth around the outside at Brundle.

Shedden then closed on team-mate Matt Neal, who did not fight when the number 52 estate went down the inside at Montreal.

Motorbase Ford Focus pair Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi followed Morgan home. Giovanardi went from 13th to seventh on lap one and then held off the BMR Passat of Aron Smith for much of the race.

The second MG of Sam Tordoff did even better, climbing to ninth from the back of the grid, while Marc Hynes - on the soft Dunlop tyre - made it three MG6s in the top 10 by narrowly beating Jack Goff's VW.

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan, who started 16th after his recovery drive , rose to 10th early on, but it was not to be a happy race.

Jordan got by Rob Collard on the run out of Oggies, but the WSR BMW struck back on the Bentley Straight. Goff made it three abreast and the trio ran out of room at Brundle.

Jordan was forced into a spin and fell to 22nd. He came back and grabbed a single point by outdragging Dave Newsham's AmD Ford Focus by 0.043s on the run to the line.

Results - 15 laps:                                       
                                                         
Pos Driver               Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1. Jason Plato          MG                    33m00.807s
 2. Colin Turkington     WSR BMW                  +1.608s
 3. Gordon Shedden       Honda                    +6.506s
 4. Matt Neal            Honda                    +8.072s
 5. Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes         +9.353s
 6. Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford          +11.109s
 7. Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford          +11.977s
 8. Aron Smith           BMR VW                  +14.334s
 9. Sam Tordoff          MG                      +18.072s
10. Marc Hynes           MG                      +20.556s
11. Jack Goff            BMR VW                  +20.831s
12. Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda          +22.120s
13. Rob Austin           RAR Audi                +26.130s
14. Nick Foster          WSR BMW                 +26.343s
15. Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda          +26.680s
16. Dave Newsham         AmD Ford                +26.723s
17. Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet        +41.418s
18. Rob Collard          WSR BMW                 +53.675s
19. Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota         +53.854s
20. James Cole           UA Toyota               +57.483s
21. Simon Belcher        Handy Toyota          +1m03.170s
22. Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton          +1m04.051s
23. Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet         +1m13.574s
24. Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi                  -1 lap
25. Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford           -2 laps
                                                         
Retirements:                                             
                                                         
    Glynn Geddie         UA Toyota                11 laps
    Dan Welch            Welch Proton              6 laps
    Warren Scott         BMR VW                    5 laps
    Robb Holland         Rotek Audi                5 laps
    Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota         2 laps
    Alain Menu           BMR VW                    0 laps