The Triple Eight run squad will be looking to improve the car during the summer, but Neal also faces the problem of pressure from within the team as Fabrizio Giovanardi also goes for the title.

However, you'd only count Neal out at your peril.

Name: Fabrizio Giovanardi
Team VX Racing
Current position: Third
Current points: 120
Gap to leader: 29
Average points per race: 8

The defending champion may be 29 points behind, but Fabrizio Giovanardi has shown what he can do when he is chasing down the leader in the title race, but the campaign to date has been a mixed one for the Italian.

After a podium in race one, the remainder of the season opener at Brands Hatch was nothing short of a disaster and Giovanardi has been playing catch up as a result.

Like Neal, Giovanardi hasn't had it easy when the weather conditions have been hot, but victory at Croft – only his second of the season – means he is still very much in the mix at the half way point.

Three in a row? Still very much a possibility.

Name: Jason Plato
Team Racing Silverline
Current position: Fourth
Current points: 113
Gap to leader: 36
Average points per race: 7.53

Jason Plato for the title? No chance at all a week before the season was due to start. Then came a late deal with RML and the 2001 champion hasn't looked back.

There's only been one victory so far – at Brands Hatch – but Plato has scored in every race and the consistency is improving as team and driver get to grips with each other, and with running the Chevrolet on British circuits.

Four podiums in the last six races show the pace of the package is there, but Plato needs to convert podium finishes into victories if he is to close the 36 point lead held by Turkington.

No-one will try harder though.

Name: Rob Collard
Team Airwaves BMW
Current position: Fifth
Current points: 98
Gap to leader: 51
Average points per race: 6.53

Bad luck has probably ended Rob Collard's title hopes, but the Airwaves BMW man has the pace to make a fight of it from 51 points back. Failing to score on two occasions at Thruxton and Oulton could well be the deciding factor but two victories this season will surely be added to during the second half of the year.

Name: James Thompson
Team Team Dynamics
Current position: Sixth
Current points: 89
Gap to leader: 60
Points per race: 7.41

James Thompson made a surprise return to the BTCC at Thruxton, so is three races behind everyone else at the head of the points race. Despite that, the double champion has won three times and was the first man this season to win more than once.

He's likely to miss races before the end of the season due to other commitments so his title chances are slim, but his pace and experience will keep Team Dynamics near the front.