Onslow-Cole: No malice in Knockhill shunt.
Tom Onslow-Cole has said there was no malice involved in his coming together with Jason Plato in the final HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Knockhill.
The pair were dicing for ninth and tenth place in the third race when they came together at the Hairpin on lap eight, with Plato suffering damage to the rear-left of his car that in turn saw him go off into the wall.
Tom Onslow-Cole has said there was no malice involved in his coming together with Jason Plato in the final HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Knockhill.
The pair were dicing for ninth and tenth place in the third race when they came together at the Hairpin on lap eight, with Plato suffering damage to the rear-left of his car that in turn saw him go off into the wall.
Onslow-Cole was able to continue, although he finished outside the points after then being touched by Adam Jones at SEAT Curve, and he said afterwards that there had been nothing malicious in his coming together with the 2001 champion.
"It was one of those things really," he said. "He gave me a little tap on the way in to get past which was a bit of a forceful move and I was pushed out into the gravel.
"Unfortunately, rejoining the circuit we had a bit of contact. I'm sorry that it happened, there was no malice or anything like that involved. You don't do that kind of thing fighting for tenth position."
Until that point, the weekend had been going to plan for Onslow-Cole, who took podium finishes in both race one and race two.
In the early stages of the opening race he lay in second place behind Plato before allowing Giovanardi through late on to pick up more points towards his championship tally. He then repeated the feat by taking third again in race two by following Plato and Giovanardi home to another podium finish.
"Race one was good; a solid finish," he said. "I had a really good start off the line and immediately focus on passing Jason. That wasn't possible in the end but I scored a significant amount of points which is important.
"Race two was fairly quiet for me. I had a busy start as I didn't have the best line off the grid and a BMW nearly got me but I kept my position. Unfortunately both Fabrizio and Jason edged slightly away from me after that.
"I had hoped to be on the podium again in race three or at least to score a good amount of points, but it didn't happen."
