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Rounds 1/2
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Rounds 3/4 - Silverstone 17/18 April 1999 |
Rounds 5/6
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| A fantastic second meeting of the Auto Trader British Touring Car Championship was held last weekend at the Silverstone. Nissan indicated that the poor performance at Donington was not to be repeated. The works drivers took the front row for the sprint race, and 1st and 3rd on the grid for the longer feature race. Rickard Rydell proved to be competitive though, qualifying 4th and 2nd for rounds 3 and 4 respectively. Interestingly, Matt Neal, in the private Nissan Primera qualified a fine 3rd for the sprint race but a less impressive 12th for the feature. This was not to be Neal's weekend though. |
Photograph provided by Nissan UK
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| As is usually the case with the short race, the finishing positions were little different to the grid. Nissan managed an impressive 1-2, with Matt Neal losing 3rd place to Rickard Rydell. The rest of the field was mixed. James Thompson had a lacklustre race, managing only 5th - he did improve on this by one place in the feature race though. All works cars finished though except for the Vectra of Yvan Muller. He came back though in the feature race to finish 2nd from a starting position of 10th on the grid. Muller made up five places on the first lap alone, finding grip where others were sliding (there was a rain shower before the race began). Unfortunately for Vauxhall, the Vectra was deemed to be illegal in post-race scrutineering, due to the ride height. | |
Photograph provided by Williams Touring Car Engineering
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Jean-Christophe Boullion inherited 2nd place from Muller briefly (before Vauxhall's appeal was successful), giving Renault an unexpected 1-2, and J-C Boullion his first podium finish in BTCC. Jason Plato's 1st place was inspired. Having qualified 4th, Plato made a storming start to take the lead from the Nissan pair in the first corner. He then furthered this lead by nearly 5 seconds before the obligatory pit stops were made. The Williams Touring Car Engineering team did a fine job in the pits, sending Plato back out on the track just feet in front of current champion, Rickard Rydell. A hard-fought battle ensued which ended as Rydell made a risky overtaking manoeuvre on the outside. He finished his race in the gravel trap, allowing Plato to cruise to the chequered flag. |
Photograph provided by Jakob Ebrey Photography
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