Priaulx takes positives from Brno

The reigning world champion lost ground in the championship fight as he only picked up two points at the Czech circuit, where he was taken out of race one in a first corner accident.

However, the BMW driver is not too concerned about his poor weekend, as he was happy with his speed.

"From a driving point of view Brno was a great weekend for me," he said. "I put it on the front row with the heaviest car, I was the best BMW by half a second.

"I came back from last to get two points in the second race - I did my job. If I had made a mistake there then I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."

Priaulx is now nine points behind Augusto Farfus in the championship, but he admitted that he has not been surprised by the performance of the Brazilian since he joined BMW for 2007.

"I don't buy this idea that Augusto's suddenly improved as a driver," he said. "Nothing he is doing is surprising me.

"I'm seeing what I expected and I'm enjoying the challenge from the Schnitzer team, it's no different to what they've shown over the last three or four years.

"It's always difficult, and I'm nine points behind so I just have to take it race by race at the moment."