Plato punished for contact with Neal

2001 and 2010 British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato has been punished for the incident with Matt Neal at the first corner of the first race of the day at Snetterton.

Jason Plato had started from pole position in the Silverline Chevrolet Cruze, but it was Matt Neal from fourth who the best start of the front runners, passing his own team-mate Gordon Shedden as well as Alex MacDowall’s Chevrolet, and was going around the outside of Plato into Riches, before there was contact between the front-left of Plato’s Chevrolet and Neal’s rear-right quarter, pushing the Civic wide on the grass and subsequently Neal spun out of control.

Matt Neal’s Civic continued and rejoined the race last, and with no safety car to bunch the field up, could manage no better than 18th in that first race. Neal went on to pick up just eight points from the day after finishing fourth in race three, with a strong run into the points positions in race two ended with a puncture.

The stewards deemed race one winner Jason Plato responsible for the incident and endorsed his racing licence by three points, as well as a fine of £500.