Matt Neal keeps the pressure on at the top

Matt Neal said he was pleased to keep the pressure on Sam Tordoff at the top of the BTCC points standings at Rockingham, although the Honda man admitted that the weather had aided him in his bid to keep in touch with his BMW rival.

Neal closed to within five points of the championship lead with a solid performance across all three races at the Northamptonshire circuit, which included a fourth place finish on the hard tyre in race three; one of the few occasions in which a driver was able to make the harder rubber work across race day.

Although he outscored Tordoff across race day, there was an element of what might have been for Neal however, after WSR produced an impressive recovery from a tough qualifying session that saw all three of its cars towards the back of the grid.

At the same time though, the triple champion conceded that had qualifying run in dry conditions, he could have come away from the weekend having lost vital ground in the title race.

“It was hard work today and I expected the car to be a lot worse in race three than it was on the hard tyre, but we managed to make it work for us,” he said. “I think the podium was out of reach, but fourth was a good result on that tyre and capped a solid day in terms of points in the title race.

“It’s good that we have closed the gap a little but you could say there is some disappointment that Sam and WSR have salvaged such a good weekend from where they were after qualifying. They really pulled their socks up although we always knew they would be good here; it’s just that the weather threw a curveball in qualifying.

“In a way that’s a good thing for us, as we’d have been leaving here with a real bloody nose if they’d started at the front.”

Next up for the series is a trip to Silverstone, and Neal admitted that he expected it to be a tough weekend for the Dynamics-run Honda squad.

“Silverstone is a power circuit and it hasn’t been well suited to either the Honda or the BMW in the past for that reason,” he said. “The BMW has good top end speed now so they could be okay, so we’ll have to take it as it comes and keep the pressure on.”