Vauxhall takes top three places at first test...

At a damp Brands Hatch, the two main protagonists in the new-look BTCC chose garages at opposite ends of the pitlane for the championship's first official test. It was always expected that the Vauxhall Astras would be quicker than their French rivals as the Triple Eight Engineering-built cars have enjoyed considerably more track time than the 406 Coupes.

Frenchman Yvan Muller ended up on top of the time sheets after hussling his Astra round the Indy circuit in 49.636s, ahead of team mate Jason Plato and the Egg-backed car of James Thompson. Muller, however, was completely uninterested in the times and was more concerned with the unpredictable conditions being thrown at him by the English weather.

"It is very difficult to test in these conditions," said Muller. "First it's wet, then dry and then wet again. The car feels quite good, but I don't care about the times. I haven't looked at them all day. They are not important. I don't think we will see the true potential of who will do what until the first race."

With heavy rain during the morning session the teams were forced to run rain tyres with dry set-ups and were not able to run on slicks until midway through the afternoon when a dry line developed.

Touring and sportscar legend Steve Soper finished sixth and did most of the running for Peugeot as his bright yellow machine had already completed two previous tests. It was therefore unexpected that Matt Neal should be the quicker of the two in a car that was completed at only 1230hrs this morning. More impressive still is that, due to an unavailable part, both Peugeots were only using five of a possible six gears.

Neal's final time was just under a second shy of top man Muller and as a result Peugeot Sport UK boss Mick Linford was unconcerned by the deficit.

"I'm not worried," he said. "At the moment we're just concerned with getting in the track time. Without the right gear ratios, there is no way that we're going to set competitive times. The times at Oulton Park [next week] should be more representative."

Top of the Production Class was the Honda of James Kaye who finished in seventh place just 0.865s behind the nearest Touring Class car. Simon Harrison smoothly took his HTML-run Peugeot 306 round in 52.140s to take eighth just 0.021s ahead of Norwegian team mate Roger Moen. The second Honda of Peter Cate rounded out the top 10.


Yvan Muller Vauxhall Astra Coupe 49.636s
Jason Plato Vauxhall Astra Coupe 49.714s
James Thompson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 49.899s
Matt Neal Peugeot 406 Coupe 50.613s
Phil Bennet Vauxhall Astra Coupe 50.976s
Steve Soper Peugeot 406 Coupe 51.263s
James Kaye Honda Accord 52.028s
Simon Harrison Peugeot 306 52.140s
Roger Moen Peugeot 306 52.161s
Peter Cate Honda Accord 52.388s

P - Production Class