Cook awarded race two after last lap Neal contact

Matt Neal crossed the line first on the road but Josh Cook is awarded the race two win after Neal receives a 0.7s post-race time penalty for making contact with Cook at Croft.

Simon Evans

11 Oct 2020

iJosh Cook (GBR) - BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R
© Jakob Ebrey

BTC Racing's Josh Cook has been awarded the race two British Touring Car Championship victory at Croft after Matt Neal received a 0.7s time penalty for his part in their final lap contact.

Three-time champion Neal took the victory on the road ahead of Cook, but only after making contact with his fellow runner on the last-lap of the race.

The stewards have since taken the decision to reverse the positions, meaning Cook takes his second win of the day, while Neal is demoted to second.

Having started from pole position, Cook looked on course to record his second victory of the day after leading every lap of the race.

However, Neal, who got past MB Motorsport's Jake Hill on lap 10, caught Cook at a vast rate of knots and was on the rear of the BTC Racing Honda with little under two-laps to go.

With Cook carrying 60 kilos of success ballast from winning the opening race, Neal enjoyed a clear pace advantage over his fellow Honda, especially through the quicker second half of the lap.

Indeed, during what proved to be a grandstand final lap, Neal carried more speed from the exit of the Clark chicane before making a lunge on Cook for the race lead at Sunny In.

Neal ultimately made contact with the rear-right of Cook's Honda, which sent the long-term leader into a huge slide as the pair exited the fast right-hander.

Cook managed to recover the slide and regain control, but by that moment Neal had already sailed into the lead to take what would have been his first victory since winning the 2018 Snetterton Diamond Double race.

Cook still held onto second, while MB Motorsport's Hill ensured it was Honda 1-2-3 podium lockout in third.

Aside from the final lap drama, the title race took yet another sensational turn after both championship protagonists Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington failed to score a single point.

Defending four-time champion Turkington made a highly uncharacteristic error during the opening corner of the second race after locking his cold front-tyres, which sent the Team BMW driver careering into an immediate retirement after hitting the tyre wall.

From that moment on it was advantage Sutton. However, the championship leader threw away any chance of extending his points lead after making contact with Jake Hill when battling for second.

Sutton attempted to lunge past Hill at the final hairpin on lap seven of the race, but ended up getting a front-right puncture after his Infiniti Q50 interlocked with the left-hand-side of Hill's Honda.

That meant Sutton could only manage a 20th place finish, meaning the margin back to Turkington remains just two-points.

In terms of title outlook, Honda's Dan Cammish proved to be the main benefactor of Sutton and Turkington's race two woes after a fifth place finish saw the Team Dynamics driver close to within 13-points of the championship lead.