Tom Onslow-Cole insists he is 'sticking to his guns' regarding his incident during the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at
Knockhill – an incident that saw him excluded from the race and effectively ruined the rest of his weekend.
The Team RAC driver was producing a fine drive in the first race in Scotland having climbed from eighth on the grid to run in fourth behind title chaser Fabrizio Giovanardi in the closing laps.
With just one lap remaining, Onslow-Cole went for a move up the inside into Carlube corner, but contact between the
BMW and the Vectra saw Giovanardi tipped into a sideways slide that dropped him down to seventh and allowed points leader
Jason Plato to move through into a podium position.
Onslow-Cole took the flag in fourth place before being excluded from the results, although he admitted afterwards that he felt the decision had been too harsh.
"Giovanardi was brake-testing me before the chicane because that was my strongest area and I knew I could attack him under braking," he said. "On the penultimate lap, I left enough of a gap so he couldn't brake-test me but I could still catch him through the chicane. I did that and landed just behind him with a lot of extra speed, so I immediately moved to the inside of him and started making up ground to the inside of his car.
"I got up alongside him, between the front and back door, going into Carlube and hit the brakes when I needed to. He braked later and tried to come back round the outside and turned in on his normal line. Obviously he shouldn't have done that because I was already there.
"Unfortunately in the judicial room they didn't have my in-car camera footage which is a shame, because all the footage they showed wasn't actually very clear at all; they were either head-on or straight from behind where you can't see too much. Although I was penalised I'm sticking to my guns and still believe it was a genuine move."
