Championship leader
Jason Plato has hit out at 'inconsistencies' within the judicial proceedings in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after another controversial incident during the latest rounds of the season at
Knockhill.
Following on from the first lap shunt last time out at
Brands Hatch, the opening race of the weekend in Scotland again saw a big talking point when Team RAC driver
Tom Onslow-Cole made contact with Fabrizio Giovanardi – Plato's title rival – while dicing for third place.
The incident at Carlube corner on the penultimate lap saw Giovanardi slip down to seventh and allowed Plato to jump up to third as he passed the squabbling pair, with Onslow-Cole taking the flag in fourth.
However, the BTCC rookie was then excluded from the results and demoted to the back of the grid after race officials deemed that he had been at fault for the incident. While Onslow-Cole protested his innocence, he also gained the support of Plato, who had seen the event unfold in front of him.
When interviewed by
Crash.net Radio at the end of racing, Plato was asked if luck had been on his side to gain the two places in race one – with the SEAT man being forthright in his views on the latest controversy surrounding driving standards.
"I wouldn't say it was luck," he said. "I wasn't the one who turned in – Giovanardi was. Tom Onslow-Cole did the same move to me about four laps earlier and I conceded the corner; there was no incident. So I would say it was an error from Fabrizio and it was nice that it happened for me as I'll take the points.
