Gordon Shedden has won the first of today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.

Shedden led all the way from pole position, save for one lap when Honda team-mate Matt Neal got ahead.

In the end, though, Shedden led Neal across the line for a 1-2 result for their team, their Honda Civics some way ahead of the field at the line.

Shedden said: "I was surprised how big a lead I'd got after the first two laps and it was just a case of controlling it from there. When I saw Matt had got up to second it made sense to let him past over the line for the bonus for leading. I led here last year and got a puncture so this feels like payback."

Neal added: "That's a great result for everyone in our team. Thruxton is such a technical circuit so for the Civic to take a 1-2 shows just how good a car it is."

Third, after fending off constant pressure from Tom Chilton was Andrew Jordan in his Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra. Jordan had been second early until he was passed by Neal into the Complex.

Jordan commented: "I wasn't surprised Matt had a go and there was no point fighting him - those Hondas are just too quick for us around here and massively fast down the straights. If a win's out of the question then I'll just keep taking as many points as I can in each race."

Chilton was fourth in his Team Aon Ford Focus but Jason Plato, who’d been in fifth and closing on Chilton, crashed out in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze with a suspected puncture.

That left the way open for Tom Boardman to take fifth in his Special Tuning SEAT Leon, just ahead of Mat Jackson’s Airwaves Racing Ford Focus, which set the race’s fastest lap, and Tom Onslow-Cole’s AmD Milltek VW Golf. Eighth was James Nash in his 888 Racing with Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra.

As a result, Neal has moved past Nash and back into the lead of the championship. Jackson remains third ahead of Jordan while Shedden has moved past Plato and up into fifth going into today’s second race, which will start at 2.10pm.

Meanwhile, Jordan and Plato's team-mates Jeff Smith and Alex MacDowall completed the top ten, the latter after a neat move past Robert Collard's WSR BMW into the chicane.

Elsewhere, Chilton's team-mate Andy Neate finished 16th while Chris James's ES Racing Chevrolet Lacetti completed the runners in 18th a lap down after damaging his car's front splitter.

Other than Plato, other retirements included Frank Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota Avensis and Rob Austin's RAR Audi A4 which both stopped in the pit lane with mechanical problems.

1 52  Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 16 -- 1m19.195s 2 2  Matt Neal Honda Civic 16 +0.256s 1m19.385s 3 77 I Andrew Jordan Vauxhall Vectra 16  +2.651s 1m19.338s 4 5 I Tom Chilton Global Ford Focus 16 +4.361s 1m19.276s 5 20 I Tom Boardman SEAT Leon 16 +9.142s 1m19.276s 6 7 I Mat Jackson Ford Focus ST 16 +9.611s 1m19.192s 7 99 I Tom Onslow-Cole VW Golf MK5 16 +10.641s 1m19.827s 8 14 I James Nash Vauxhall Vectra 16 +11.382s 1m19.817s 9 55 I Jeff Smith Vauxhall Vectra 16 +12.469s 1m20.103s 10 20  Alex MacDowall Chevrolet Cruze 16 +12.827s 1m20.026s 11 34 I Tony Gilham Vauxhall Vectra 16 +19.416s 1m20.147s 12 8 I Robert Collard BMW 320si E90 16 +20.068s 1m20.085s 13 29 I Paul O'Neill Chevrolet Cruze 16 +20.786s 1m19.995s 14 66 I Liam Griffin Ford Focus ST 16 +32.348s 1m20.965s 15 18 I Nick Foster BMW 320si E90 16 +33.482s 1m20.969s 16 44 I Andy Neate Global Ford Focus 16 +39.931s 1m19.363s 17 28 I John George Chevrolet Cruze 16 +45.057s 1m21.342s 18 78 I Chris James Chevrolet Lacetti 15 +1 Lap 1m24.192s

Not Classified - 1  Jason Plato Chevrolet Cruze 13 +3 Laps 1m19.255s - 11 I Frank Wrathall Toyota Avensis 3 +13 Laps 1m22.393s

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