The top 10 drivers of the BTCC season

A wild winter of driver moves - and new cars for those big names who stayed put - plus a mild grid format shake-up made the 2015 British Touring Car Championship even more unpredictable than usual when the season began.

Unsurprisingly the title fight was wide open all the way, and gave SCOTT MITCHELL plenty to ponder in his end-of-year driver rankings.

1. GORDON SHEDDEN
Team: Honda Civic Type-R (Team Dynamics)
Starts: 30
Wins: 4
Championship: 1st

Even Shedden's most hardened critics would do well to argue he did not deserve to win the title, especially after scoring just three points at Snetterton across a disastrous weekend.

Given he carried either 75kg or 66kg at the start of each weekend after Donington Park, what rams home Shedden's quality this year is that his average qualifying result and finishing position bests any other driver in title contention - despite never starting from pole.

You could argue the Civic was the class of the field in the second half of the season, particularly given how quick Shedden was without ballast in the finale. But the rival Volkswagen was a potent weapon early on, and Shedden was hardly out of the picture during those rounds.

He ended the season with four wins and more fastest laps (six) than any other driver, and when it mattered with his back against the wall in the title-decider, he produced a drive right out of the top drawer.

2. JASON PLATO
Team: Team BMR Volkswagen CC
Starts: 30
Wins: 6
Championship: 2nd

Switching to a new team with an untried car sounded insane, but Plato knew better than us. And the new partnership delivered in spades.

Extra ballast and new grid-setting rules for race two were designed to stop one driver dominating a weekend, and Plato was the man who managed to do that in the most convincing manner (at Oulton Park).

Nobody had a better grasp of the bigger picture than Plato, as exhibited by an excellent run of race-two grid positions, which were the result of clever strategy to make space in race one and set a good laptime.

Not for the first time in his career Plato won more races than any other driver over the course of the season, and suffered some rotten luck along the way as well.

An engine issue contributed to a dip in form over the final four rounds compared to his early-season pace, but he still managed to win two reverse-grid races to keep hauling himself back from oblivion.

It was a season packed with quality, but over the year he was just shaded by Shedden.

3. COLIN TURKINGTON
Team: Team BMR Volkswagen CC
Starts: 30
Wins: 4
Championship: 4th

Talk of the 2014 champion not being able to adjust immediately to the demands of the front-wheel drive VW after so many years in BMW machinery was generated entirely by the man himself.

Pole second time out at Donington Park and victory in race two probably settled his nerves, but he struggled to perfect the balance and generally struggled to match Plato over the opening rounds.

In the second half of the season, as momentum shifted from the BMR camp to Honda, Turkington made use of his lighter CC to grind out results where Plato struggled, particularly in qualifying.

He doggedly took his title challenge to the penultimate race, in which a puncture ended a muted run in the midfield.

4. ANDREW JORDAN
Team: MG 6GT (Triple Eight)
Starts: 30
Wins: 0
Championship: 5th

Some claim Jordan's not been the same driver since his Snetterton crash last year left him with concussion, and they'll use his poor results this year to back that up.

But in reality his driving has been perfectly fine this season. In a car that, at times, was fifth or sixth quickest the fact he remained in title contention until the final round is testimony to his cunning racecraft and dogged determination.

He was shocked not to be able to keep up with, let alone catch and pass, Adam Morgan in race three at Thruxton, which represented his best chance of victory.

Jordan grabbed podiums when he could, and his Silverstone race-two puncture wrecked arguably his most competitive weekend.

5. ANDY PRIAULX
Team: WSR BMW 125i M Sport
Starts: 27
Wins: 2
Championship: 8th

The Guernseyman bagged pole on his BTCC return but inexperience on the soft Dunlop tyres cost him victory. He was second in race two at the Brands opener, then had difficult Donington and Thruxton race days through no fault of his own.

Despite strong qualifying form, in between podiums at Brands and Oulton (eight races) Priaulx had just one top-five finish, and his season's nadir was taking himself and team-mate Rob Collard out of race two in Cheshire.

Victory in race one at Croft sparked a run of nine top-five finishes that turned him into a massive outsider for the title, but he missed Rockingham on European Le Mans Series duty and his return afterwards was a bit of an anti-climax, though he did win brilliantly in race two at Silverstone.

6. MATT NEAL
Team: Honda Civic Type-R (Team Dynamics)
Starts: 30
Wins: 3
Championship: 3rd

After a dismal winless 2014 campaign, Neal looked much sharper this season. He made it two wins out of three for the new car on its debut at Brands Hatch with victory in race three and added two more reverse-grid wins at Donington Park (which helped him lead the points after the first two rounds) and at Knockhill.

Neal's personal title challenge faded, not helped by costly retirements at Thruxton and Snetterton - and both came in race two, therefore ruining his chances in race three of those weekends.

He used his experience to good effect to act as Shedden's reargunner late on, but wasn't on the podium again over the last nine races. Admittedly he would've ended that run but for moving aside for title-chasing team-mate Shedden in the final round.

7. SAM TORDOFF
Team: WSR BMW 125i M Sport
Starts: 30
Wins: 2
Championship: 6th

Judging Tordoff's first season with WSR is tricky, because he managed to remain in title contention until the penultimate round and won two races.

That compares well to his three-time world champion team-mate, as does his points tally, and he was comfortably clear of Rob Collard in the standings in the end as well.

He struggled in qualifying compared to Priaulx but that could be put down to carrying more weight than his team-mate at any point. And his victories at Oulton Park and Croft were well-judged, though a mistake in race one in the north-east handed his team-mate his first win.

Beyond that there was very little, if any, faulting Tordoff's racecraft - his progress up the order was often a highlight across a race day.

8. ADAM MORGAN
Team: Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class
Starts: 30
Wins: 1
Championship: 7th

Another race-winning campaign in his family team's Mercedes A-Class points to a job well done for Morgan. The Mercedes was clearly a potent little car, as demonstrated by seven podiums across Donington Park, Thruxton (where he won), Snetterton, Knockhill and Brands Hatch GP.

The A-Class struggled in a straight line, accounting for difficult weekends at Rockingham and Silverstone. Over the season he comprehensively defeated new team-mate Aiden Moffat, whose BTCC star is slowly rising.

Morgan loses points for the jumped start at Oulton that cost him a great shot at victory, but wins back some via the sympathy most had after he hit an errant Dunlop hoarding while leading and losing out to Neal late on at Knockhill.

9. JACK GOFF
Team: MG 6GT (Triple Eight)
Starts: 30
Wins: 1
Championship: 9th

Minimal fuss, a strong work ethic and the team's only victory of 2015 - it's difficult to see the youngster's first year with MG being viewed as anything other than impressive.

He finished 40 points shy of team-mate Jordan, the 2013 champion, but notched up his first win in the BTCC under intense pressure from Plato, and was a regular top 10 contender in qualifying despite being in a car that at its best tracks was third quickest and at its worst would be fifth or sixth in the pecking order.

Goff had a big opportunity this season and he delivered in less-than-ideal circumstances. With Jordan out the door for 2016, how he steps up to a potential team leader role will be fascinating to watch.

10. MAT JACKSON
Team: Motorbase Ford Focus
Starts: 15
Wins: 4
Championship: 12th

There was a lot said and written about the validity of Jackson's late-season success, but this is neither the time nor place to talk about that.

Jackson's driving at times, in particular in qualifying at Rockingham, was very impressive and to get a hat-trick of poles and four wins over the last three rounds was as well.

The Ford Focus had more grunt than any other car but that's because Mountune did a fantastic job on the EcoBoost engine and the team's mid-season arrival meant its allocated boost setting was not re-evaluated, and it started each weekend after Snetterton without any weight.

Ultimately he props up this list because it's unfair to judge a part-time driver against full-season participants.

But whatever charges you levy against him, Jackson still had a job to do and proved his class as team-mate James Cole toiled.

THOSE THAT MISSED OUT...

After an encouraging rookie campaign Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram enjoyed his podium breakthrough in 2015, going wheel-to-wheel with former mentor Plato for the win at Rockingham before finishing second and repeating the result at Brands Hatch.

Rob Collard won more races than his two WSR team-mates but was too often in the midfield in qualifying, which made complete weekends difficult. Getting nerfed out by both didn't help his overall tally either.

Comfortably class of the rookie field, Josh Cook was a dominant Jack Sears Trophy winner and picked up a rostrum at Rockingham with a charging drive from 14th to third.