Rob Collard hits out at Honda’s race three tactics

Rob Collard was critical of Honda’s tactics during the final race of the weekend at Croft as the BTCC season reached the half-way point.

The Team BMW driver came away from the fifth meeting of the year sitting second in the championship standings to Honda’s Gordon Shedden, with the pair split by eleven points and with fellow WSR-driver Colin Turkington just a point further back.

Collard had battled back from qualifying in 13th place to secure a strong fourth place in race one and then followed it up with third in race two – maintaining his record this season of securing a podium finish at each of the five meetings.

Race three however would see Collard frustrated with eighth place after contact from Matt Neal at Sunny In saw him run wide and drop back from fifth spot.

“I’ve got mixed feelings to be honest,” he said at the end of the weekend, “as I feel we’ve not been able to show our true potential in the races. Race one was good to come through to fourth but in race two, I just got stuck behind Sutton and it was so hard to overtake as the Subaru has so much power.

“In race three, we were up behind Plato and although we had a lot of pace, he made it hard to get by. I then had Gordon hit me hard at the hairpin which damaged my car, and he also had a few hits into Sunny, but we were okay and staying ahead.

“All of a sudden though, the Hondas swapped, Matt was behind me and he just bulldozed me off at Sunny. That wasn’t on in my view. It was definitely a tactical overtake, and then almost a tactical delivery by a seasoned professional – and I’m disappointed by it.

“A move like that ends in disaster for the driver in front and I’m disappointed as Matt had a quicker car and it wasn’t needed – he didn’t need to do that kind of move.”

Putting his disappointment with race three to one side however, Collard admitted he was pleased with the way his season to date had panned out.

“You know that WSR will deliver a good car and the BMW is the best handling car on the grid in my opinion,” he said. “We knew Neil Brown would give us a good engine so all the ingredients were there going into the season, we just hadn’t tested as much as we wanted to.

“We’ve had to do some development work during race weekends but the package has been fantastic and I’m pleased with the way that I have driven so far this year. We have a good bond in the garage with the engineers and the mechanics, and it is showing in the performance of the team.

“I’m looking forward to a week away during the summer break to recharge the batteries as it’s all to play for in the championship, and I want to come out fighting at Snetterton.”