Plato powers back to summit

Jason Plato shrugged off his double disappointment on the opening day of the Croft weekend to regain the lead in the British Touring Car Championship.  

The 33-year-old from Oxford took a class win in the sprint race, clinging on despite a storming late challenge from his Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller.

Plato's visit to the north east had started in the worst possible way when he was given a retrospective 30-second penalty from Snetterton last Saturday for punting Phil Bennett off the circuit. The punishment cost him two points and demoted him to level with Muller in the standings.

Then Plato qualified only second and fourth for today's two races, performances which were below the standard he has been setting this year.

But he took advantage of his front-row slot in the sprint, soon passing Bennett who had claimed his first pole position in this championship.

Despite a safety-car period caused by the hazardous location of a retired car, Plato opened up a gap of nearly three seconds over Muller, who had also moved ahead of Bennett.

But his advantage was gradually whittled down by the Frenchman and at the end of the 19 laps, Plato had just 0.933sec to spare over his colleague, with James Thompson the third touring-class driver after Bennett retired.

Plato could not, however, catch Norway's Roger Moen, whose Peugeot held on for overall victory after starting almost a lap ahead with the other production-class cars in a move designed to create more exciting racing.

Channel 4 television presenter Plato then revealed he and Bennett had cleared the air after their collision in Norfolk last week.

"I had to get past Phil again today but this time I managed to keep it clean," said Plato, whose result restored his two-point lead over Muller ahead of the feature event.

"We're all adults but it can get very emotional on the track and Phil knows I never meant to take him off the way I did.

"We had a chat during the week, I said I was sorry and we are still buddies."