Neal apologises to Shedden over shunt.

Matt Neal has apologised to former team-mate Gordon Shedden for the incident that saw the Scot forced to retire from the second race of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft.

The pair were dicing for second place during the race when Neal tried to put his VX Racing Vectra up the inside of Shedden's Halfords Honda on lap three. Taking the inside line, Neal then started to drift out wide as the pair exited the corner but with Shedden trying to hang on around the outside, the resulting contact was inevitable.

Matt Neal (GBR) Vauxhall Vectra
Matt Neal (GBR) Vauxhall Vectra
© Jakob Ebrey Photography

Matt Neal has apologised to former team-mate Gordon Shedden for the incident that saw the Scot forced to retire from the second race of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft.

The pair were dicing for second place during the race when Neal tried to put his VX Racing Vectra up the inside of Shedden's Halfords Honda on lap three. Taking the inside line, Neal then started to drift out wide as the pair exited the corner but with Shedden trying to hang on around the outside, the resulting contact was inevitable.

Unfortunately for Shedden, he was forced off into the barriers and into retirement because of the incident and having stated afterwards that 'two cars could easily got through there side-by-side', the Scot then received an apology from his team-mate of the previous two years.

"It was very regrettable and I feel for Flash," Neal told Crash.net. "I got a run on him out of the Chicane and I got my car down the inside going into Tower. I got half way through and we were both going for the exit of the corner and both under-steering as we tried to get on the power. We touched, and nine times out of ten, we'd have carried on. But as we touched, the wheel of his car ran up the side of mine and it bumped him into the air. When it landed I think it broke something, but I feel sorry for him that it happened."

Neal went on to finish that race in third place and, with podium finishes in the other two races of he weekend, he now lies second in the championship standings at the half-way point of the campaign - 23 points behind Vauxhall team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi.

"I'm over the moon with the weekend but I shows how close it is as one weekend can turn it on its head," he said. "It's not over by a long way and one weekend, Jason or Mat Jackson or whoever could be right back in the mix.

"I'm trying to keep my head down and do the best I can. I don't want to be stood there waving my arms in the air, I want to go about my job quietly and be there at the end of it all. There is a long way still to go and we don't have anything trick up our sleeve for the rest of the year. The BMWs will be quick and the SEAT is going to be quick and so it isn't over by a long way yet."

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