Hot feelings after incidents

Reigning Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion Matt Neal has aired his frustration at crashing out of yesterday’s third round at Brands Hatch.
Neal had just muscled his way past Team RAC MG driver Rob Collard for second place.

But as the two drivers approached Paddock Hill Bend, their two cars touched and Neal’s Team Halfords Honda Integra suddenly span left at speed and into the barriers. With Neal still inside his stranded car, officials brought the race to a halt and later excluded Collard from the results, although the latter’s team has appealed the decision to a Motor Sports Association tribunal.

The retirement was, incredibly, Neal’s first in 33 BTCC races. Neal had finished both the day’s earlier two races in third spot. And had he taken the runner-up points in round three, he would have emerged from Brands Hatch second in the championship standings behind SEAT’s James Thompson.

Neal said: “We could have had a mega points score this weekend with two thirds and a second. To walk away with not only a non-finish from the third race but also a wrecked car makes me very angry. Now we re-group and look to Mondello.”

Plato vs. Giovanardi

Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi and SEAT’s Jason Plato have slammed each other’s driving following yesterday’s opening three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at Brands Hatch.

Their cars were involved in a brush away from the start of the opening round. Later Plato retired from the race with suspension damage to his Leon and placed the blame squarely at Giovanardi’s door. Giovanardi also retired when his Astra Sport Hatch nose-dived into the barriers when it got in a tangle with Rob Collard’s Team RAC MG.

Italian touring car ace Giovanardi, making his BTCC debut, said: “That was a good welcome to England! I got a good start in race one despite Jason Plato pushing me into the pit wall. I was in third and in front of Plato but then almost immediately he started to hit me.

“He tried to spin me on lap five but I managed to hold it. I told myself to be calm but unfortunately there were many guys like Plato on the circuit today.”

But Plato replied: “I was up to fourth (past Giovanardi) and on the pace when Giovanardi started to hit me from behind. On lap ten he hit me again at Paddock Hill Bend, again at Druids, Graham Hill Bend, Surtees, McLaren and then he really clouted me at Clearways.

He hit me so hard that he broke my rear suspension and pushed me sideways and then I got tagged a few times more. It’s not necessary to drive like that at this stage and it’s because of Giovanardi’s Latin temperament that we missed out on a possible SEAT 1-2 result.”