Despite falling to fifth on the opening lap, Alain Menu charged back to win round seven of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Oulton Park  on Saturday “I made my life very hard at the start,” admitted Menu.Driving the VIP car entered by Porsche Cars GB, Menu drove superbly to battle to the front of the pack as Jason Templeman (Team VLR) scored maximum championship points with a fine drive into second.The start of the race was incredibly tight as the leading drivers dived into the first corner. Menu, from pole position, thought he had made a good start but was beaten into the first corner by Templeman, Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) and Tim Harvey (Team RPM). Then, at Island Hairpin, Jonathan Fildes (TCR) edged Menu back to fifth.Once into his stride, Menu set about recovering lost ground and by lap four was back into second behind Templeman as the leading quintet raced nosed to tail. “They were fighting for the championship, so they didn’t make life too difficult for me,” explained Menu. Westbrook didn’t fight the Swiss racer, hoping that he would cause race leader Templeman some problems.However, Templeman knew that Menu would soon be attacking for the lead. “I knew it was going to be tough staying ahead of Alain and there was no point risking going off,” said Jason. Sure enough, on lap six Menu dived ahead into Island and Templeman now concentrated on chasing the former BTCC champion and maintaining second place.Menu duly rattled off the remaining laps to score a great win. “I had great fun! It’s good to come back to Oulton Park after four years and win again,” said Menu. Templeman, meanwhile, drove a mighty race to make certain of maximum points. “That was mega,” said Jason. “I got a brilliant start and that made my luck.”Westbrook, having found a damper problem after qualifying, was equally pleased with third. “I’m happy with that, but there’s more to come tomorrow,” he promised. However, Harvey had battled against a brake problem to salvage fourth, unable to challenge Westbrook. “I had an inconsistent brake pedal for most of the race. In the end I settled for fourth,” he explained.Fildes drove a strong race to take fifth. “I’m happy now I know I can run on their pace,” he reckoned, as Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing) took sixth from the battling pair of Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) and Martin Rich (Team Parker Racing).Provisional results (12 laps):

1 Alain Menu (Porsche Cars GB)                     17m13.144s2 Jason Templeman (Team VLR)                      17m14.274s3 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing)          17m16.457s4 Tim Harvey (Team RPM)                              17m20.981s5 Jonathan Fildes (TCR)                                   17m23.282s6 Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing)              17m30.520s7 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing)                        17m32.305s8 Martin Rich (Team Parker Racing)                17m32.527s9 Gary Britnell (Motorbase Performance)        17m35.819s10 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance)      17m36.352s