BTCC Title Not Lost Yet, says Honda's Neal

05 June 2003

Honda's Matt Neal believes he still has time to recover from his atrocious start to the Green Flag British Touring Car season and fight for the title.
 
Neal has taken a win and second place in the opening six rounds but still trails series leader, Vauxhall's Yvan Muller, by 49 points as the championship arrives at Silverstone this weekend, 7th/8th June, for rounds seven and eight.
 
A puncture while leading the latest round at Thruxton a fortnight ago cost Neal dear and he is only fifth in the standings.
 
Neal had already been left playing catch-up since retiring from both opening rounds at Mondello Park. He won Brands Hatch's opening race, but in the second a pitstop mix-up dropped him down the order to seventh. Neal was then runner-up to Muller in Thruxton's opening race, but finished outside the points in the second due his puncture.
 
Neal said: “There’s no doubt that we ran well at Thruxton. From a personal point of view, luck wasn’t on my side, but it won’t always be like that.
 
"I’m a great believer that fate will eventually swing back in my favour. Let’s hope that it will start to do so at Silverstone, where I’ll be going for a second consecutive pole position and perhaps a race win, especially with a weight advantage on my side.”
Neal's 11th place at Thruxton means his Civic Type-R will carry no success ballast at Silverstone, in theory giving it an advantage in qualifying and the first race.

Neal, who finished third in last year's BTCc with vauxhall, added: “We’re now at the stage where we can have a straight fight with any of the other cars. In fact, I’d say that the Civic Type-R even has the edge over the competition in some places. All we need to do now is to get all three cars running at the front at the same time and to be working as a team."

See series calendar for British Touring Car Championship 2003

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