Photo: PSP Images

Shedden leads Honda 1-2 to ensure drivers’ title for Honda

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Gordon Shedden took the win in Round 29 of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone with Matt Neal finishing second, which ensures the 2011 drivers’ Championship will go to one of the two Honda drivers.

Shedden took the lead at the start with Matt Neal falling to third behind the Arena Ford Focus of Tom Onslow-Cole.

Another puncture for Mat Jackson, this time on the very first lap meant it was another disastrous race for the Motorbase driver, though by picking up the point for the fastest lap he moves up to joint fourth in the Championship, tied with James Nash going into the final race of 2011.

On lap four, a slide from Tom Onslow-Cole saw the Ford driver drop behind Matt Neal in third place, where he’d go on to finish to take his second podium result of the season.

Chevrolet’s Jason Plato worked his way up the order to finish seventh after starting 25th, but this wasn’t enough to keep his title hopes alive with the Hondas up front. In sixth place was Tom Boardman, who’d also worked his way up from the back of the grid, starting 23rd after retiring in race one after an incident with Rob Collard.

The safety car was called out on lap 14 after Nick Foster spun his West Surrey Racing BMW 320si around on the start finish straight, causing heavy front end damage to the car and afterwards just clipped by a passing James Thompson, who had another troubled race suffering a puncture later on in the Motorbase Ford Focus ST.

At the restart, Shedden held the lead from Neal, with Onslow-Cole, Dave Newsham’s SEAT and Andrew Jordan’s Vauxhall all completing the top five at the end of the race. Dan Welch also scored the first Championship points for Welch Automotive’s Proton Gen-2 with tenth place.

Shedden’s win sees the Scottish driver close up to just nine points behind Matt Neal in the drivers’ standings, with Jason Plato now 30 points adrift and out of contention for the 2011 title.

For the final race, Shedden will start ninth and Matt Neal eighth as the top nine are reversed for the final race, with Alex MacDowall starting from pole position alongside Tom Chilton with Plato third.