James Nash has achieved his first ever victory in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton.

In only his third appearance in the BTCC, 23-year-old Nash from Buckinghamshire won the third of three races at the Norfolk circuit in his RML Chevrolet Lacetti.

But his win came in controversial circumstances after he’d spun early leader Robert Collard’s Airwaves BMW off the track. Collard’s car was then struck by the Team RAC BMW of Stephen Jelley – an incident that required the second of two safety car periods. Officials are continuing to investigate the incident – the result therefore remains provisional.

Finishing second was Team RAC’s Colin Turkington, the series leader. Third was Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi. As a result, Turkington will now head to the BTCC’s next round at the Knockhill circuit in Fife on Sunday 16 August leading the standings by 16 points from Giovanardi who won the day’s earlier two races.

Finishing the race in fourth and salvaging something out of what has been a rough day for him was Giovanardi’s team-mate Matt Neal who leaves Norfolk third in the standings just eight points clear of Jason Plato. The Racing Silverline Chevrolet driver had started the race as a favourite to win it and had quickly got up to third from sixth on the grid only to suffer a punctured tyre. He rejoined the track a lap down after a pit stop but only scored one point for setting the race’s fastest lap. It was a bitter blow to his championship challenge…

Vauxhall’s Andrew Jordan and James Thompson (Team Dynamics Honda) completed the top six ahead of Paul O’Neill whose seventh place capped a terrific day for the Widnes driver and his tiny sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed team after third and then fifth positions in races one and two. Thompson had initially dropped to the tail of the field after a pit stop to replace a rear puncture caused in a clash with the bamboo engineering Chevrolet of Harry Vaulkhard who came off worse in the incident with a sizeable crash into the barriers. A safety car period to retrieve Tom Chilton’s stranded Team Aon Ford Focus then enabled Thompson to close back up to the pack before he started working his way through the order.

Adam Jones took eighth in his Cartridge World SEAT Leon but only just as ninth-placed Jonathan Adam chased him across the line. Adam had been up to third at one stage but a spin as he prepared to restart following the second safety car period dropped him down the order. On the final lap David Pinkney (Dynamics Honda) made it past Martin Johnson (Boulevard Vauxhall Astra) to deny the latter a first-ever BTCC point!

John George (JAG/TH Honda Integra), Gordon Shedden (Cartridge World SEAT Leon) and the lapped Plato completed the order.