Silverstone BTCC: Turkington win keeps title hopes alive

From second on the grid, Rob Collard got the jump over reverse grid polesitter James Cole heading into Copse for the first time, with Turkington slotting into third.

But the Ulsterman wasted no time whatsoever in making his way to the head of the field, passing Cole on the first lap before taking the lead from Collard at Brooklands on the second lap.

After a Safety Car interlude caused by a shunt between Daniel Welch and Hunter Abbott, Turkington duly pulled away from Collard to score his fourth win of the season by 2.1 seconds.

Collard soon found his mirrors full of West Surrey Racing teammate Sam Tordoff, who was unable to make a move until the team swapped their man round in the closing stages in a bid to catch Turkington - only to then swap them back, Collard crossing the line 0.2s ahead of Tordoff.

Having nudged Cole aside shortly after the restart to take fourth, Plato spent the rest of the race defending from Honda duo Shedden and Matt Neal, who finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Race one winner Mat Jackson stormed through the field from the back of the grid after his race two puncture to take seventh ahead of Adam Morgan, with Cole being relegated to ninth and Aiden Moffat taking the final place in the top 10.

Andy Priaulx, with maximum ballast after his race two victory and the soft tyre, suffered a disastrous race, slipping back from his grid position of 10th and being awarded a drive-through penalty for hitting Jack Goff's MG. He wound up 21st.

Turkington's 100th BTCC podium finish closes the reigning champion to within 32 points of series leader Shedden with just the Brands Hatch triple-header remaining. Plato is 23 adrift.