Darren Turner excluded from race 3

Darren Turner was last night excluded from his fourth position in round 3 of the Dunlop British Touring Car Championship’s at Brands Hatch. Officials judged that SEAT’s Turner was guilty of tapping Team RAC’s Colin Turkington’s into a spin that put the BMW driver out of the race.

SEAT Sport UK appealed the ruling but the clerk of the course’s decision was upheld. Turner also received four penalty points on his competition licence.

The outcome has a knock-on effect in the title race with, ironically, Turner’s team-mate Jason Plato now inheriting fourth position and thus extending his championship lead from seven to nine points over Matt Neal.

While Turkington at least holds on to third position overall, thanks to his pair of second places in rounds 1 and 2, Turner has tumbled to tenth in the championship.

In the Manufacturers’ championship, Turner’s exclusion has cost SEAT ground to Vauxhall and the gap between them is now out to 15 points.

SEAT Sport UK, though, continues to lead the Teams’ table.