Turkington takes controversial win

Team RAC's Turkington made a last corner lunge on the leading Vauxhall of Fabrizio Giovanardi to take the win.

He was alongside going into the first apex of the chicane, however the pair then both took to the grass on the outside of the chicane. Turkington wound up ahead and took the chequered flag first.

Turkington had led going into the final lap, but after a brief rain shower and two safety car periods mid-way through, Giovanardi was in a position to take advantage of a brief slide by Turkington out of Redgate corner for the final time.

Giovanardi then led the rest of the lap, until the controversial incident at the final chicane that denied him his maiden win in the series.

"It was great race until the end of the last chicane," said the Italian. "I don't know if I was stupid to leave the space open, I think the marshals will look at it and to see if that was correct or not. The last chicane was the last chicane. I am really upset."

Turkington believed the victory was gone when he lost the lead just at the start of the final lap.

"It was one of the most difficult races I've ever had to drive," he said. "There was lot of rain coming down, but no rain round the back of the circuit and it was a constant juggle with the brake pedal. On the last lap I thought the win was gone but I wasn't prepared to give it up that easily."

Team Dynamic's Gordon Shedden, who won the first two races of the day, had a lively run to third place, having stopped out on the circuit briefly after being spun from behind when he was trying to enter the pits for a drive-through penalty because of a jump start.

However, the safety car periods, called in turn to recover the stricken cars of Eion Murray and Mike Jordan, allowed Shedden to get back into the action and work his way up to third.

Darren Turner finished fourth for SEAT, his best result of the day in his second meeting in the BTCC.

The carnage had started early, and the race was shortened by two laps after a multiple car startline collision, triggered when Jason Plato SEAT's and Jason Hughes's KartWorld MG collided just seconds after the lights went out.

Mark Smith's privateer Alfa Romeo was collected in the accident, which pitched him into Rob Collard's MG who turned sharply and spun into the wall. All four cars failed to make the restart.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Make                        Time
 1.  Colin Turkington     MG ZS                       24:44.034
 2.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch  +   0.383
 3.  Gordon Shedden       Honda Integra               +   4.868
 4.  Darren Turner        SEAT Leon                   +   5.568
 5.  Gavin Smith          Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch  +   5.686
 6.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch  +   6.277
 7.  Matt Neal            Honda Integra               +   6.293
 8.  James Kaye           Honda Civic Type R          +  12.636
 9.  David Pinkney        Honda Integra               +  13.389
10.  Martyn Bell          BMW 320i E46                +1:03.032

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver               Make                       Laps
     Mike Jordan          Honda Integra               11
     Eoin Murray          Alfa Romeo 156               5
     Adam Jones           Lexus IS200                  2
     Jason Plato          SEAT Leon                    0
     Robert Collard       MG ZS                        0
     Jason Hughes         MG ZS                        0
     Mark Smith           Alfa Romeo 156               0

Fastest lap: Turkington, 1:13.351 on lap 2