Donington round 17 driver quotes

Matt Neal - Honda Racing - 1st

Matt took the lead as the lights changed, losing out to James Thompson during the pit stops. But a last ditch lunge saw him take the win, even though James proved hard to pass.

He had it pretty well covered and every place I showed my nose he was there. Before the pitstop my front tyres seemed to do four of five laps then start to go away quite dramatically, Jimmy's stayed strong and he wound the pressure up for 3 or 5 laps, then his seemed to follow suit and we got a bit of a status quo. During the pitstop a nut came out of the gun which was the drama, it just gave him the couple of seconds he needed.

I came out on my second set of tyres, which were demon, but I couldn't close the gap and I thought I'd have to settle for second place. But then Jimmy started to lock his brakes, just struggling with the grip on the car. He left about a car's width - ish! I wasn't going to asked twice. He knows I would never do anything malicious against him.

James Thompson - VX Racing - 2nd

I'm disappointed, I was leading the race and felt like I had everything covered but got overtaken for second. It's not really what I need, I should be winning races and keeing the pressure on Yvan. I thought I had him covered, I'm disapointed that we made contact. I'm going to reserve judgement, such is life, it's not going to change my relationship with Matt.

The chick changing lights at the start caught James and several other drivers out, being red for only about a second before going green.

I thought there was supposed to be before four and seven seconds but it went red-green straight away, and that suprised me because in all the years I've done touring cars there's always been a delay.

Yvan Muller - VX Racing - 3rd

After missing out on Friday practice as punishment for his scuffle with Anthony Reid at Brands Hatch, and missing out on qualifying due to a problem with a circuit breaker, Yvan Muller found himself starting from the back of the Tourers. A controlled and measured drive to third was just perfect for his championship chances.

For sure I couldn't have expected a better result than that. I was expecting to be in the top ten, then when I was in the top ten I was hoping for the top five. When I saw Paul and Warren were fighting [for 3rd] I put a bit more pressure on and thought that maybe there was an opportunity to pass them before the end of the race. And that's what happened! I finished third and of course I'm pleased with that. Conditions were hard for me, I did no laps before the race and the balance of the car was not how I wanted so it's a perfect result for me.

I'd also like to point out that VX have now won the [manufacturer's] title for the third year in a row!

Round 18

Yvan Muller - VX Racing - 1st

It was a tough race, because of course Jimmy was giving his best and pushing very hard, especially at the beginning. We made a good pit stop but my in lap wasn't very good and we lost a bit of time so had to push hard to make a gap. I knew the last few laps were going to be tough and so I stayed focussed, my lap times stayed constant. I could see on my dashboard and on my pit board the gap [to the cars behind] so I knew they were losing time to me so on the last two laps I just played safe.

After the beginning of this weekend I wasn't thinking about a win at all - I wasn't even thinking about a podium! I think it's a positive weekend - third and first - I couldn't expect more than that! But there are still 35 points available at the next race, my gap to Jimmy is only 29 so it is not enough yet. At Oulton Park I must score points! Donington is not my favourite circuit, Oulton Park is a bit better for me.

Colin Turkington - MG - 2nd

It was difficult starting from thirteenth but I managed to pass several cars in the first three laps and get behind Matt and Anthony. My car seemed to be a bit quicker than Anthony's so he let me past pretty quick.

It was going to difficult for us and I reckon it's a blessing that we were using the National circuit not the Grand Prix track, it let me carry the weight better. Brands Hatch suited the MG, we always go well there. Oulton might be more difficult but we'll give it a crack! The second half of our season is obviously much stronger, another podium at Oulton Park would be great.

James Thompson - VX Racing - 3rd

Colin made a little bit of contact but you can't get that close and not rub, but it wasn't like anyone was moving me out of the corner to get past. At the end of the day I thoroughly enjoyed that. I was a bit disgruntled after the first race because of the way I was overtaken, but I think that was a cracking race this time. I think Colin has thoroughly outshone the other two [Hughes and Reid] this year and it shows in his performance in this race. He's fun to race with, the other two don't seem to have very good pheripheral vision shall we say! Him and Paul [O'Neill] have done a great job for the young lads. Good race!

Obviously Yvan won the race and that's disappointing for my championship. I gave it my best shot but he did such a good job, and he had a lot of new tyres left to use which he put to good use. I've not been particularly good off the start this year, so I saved my best set for after the pitstop to try and leapfrog him. It looked like it was going to work, but unfortunately we got Dan Eaves between us. I was going to follow Yvan past him but Dan had nowhere to go - obviously he couldn't drive off the track for me - he just chopped in between us in the middle of the chicane costing me about three-quarters of a second which I was never going to make up again.

We were so evenly matched after that, the gap stayed pretty much constant even though I was a little heavier than Yvan. We were both on new tyres and I needed to get ahead of Yvan but then I had Colin in my mirrors so I had to have a bit of a tussle with him!