Motorsport
VOLVO's Rickard Rydell regained the Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship lead at Brands Hatch yesterday when he won both sprint and feature races.
The Swedish driver has a 15-point series lead over Honda's James Thompson, who ran Rydell close in the pit-stop feature race with Renault clinging on to a two-point lead over Volvo in the BTCC manufacturers' title chase.
Lapping the Brands Indy circuit 25 times proved just as demanding as expected for many of the runners in the sprint.
Rydell, who claimed his
second victory of the 1998
season, led all the way from green light to chequered flag.
The Swede's Volvo made an impeccable getaway from the pole, an early and typically robust challenge from Anthony Reid's Nissan failing to unsettle him, with Will Hoy holding third in his Ford, and Autosport Independent frontrunner Matt Neal fourth in his Nissan.
Neal moved up to third past Hoy and looked set to make it a three-way battle for the lead, but a broken trackrod sent him into the pits before the end of lap six.
Neal's demise and Hoy's lack of pace gave Rydell and Reid the chance they needed to pull clear of the pack.
Rydell's run to victory was by no means an easy one. Reid kept up the pressure throughout, the gap between Volvo and Nissan never exceeding a car's length.
Alain Menu held on ahead of Jason Plato for third, with Yvan Muller fifth to claim his and Audi's best result to date
Thompson, who had arrived at Brands as championship leader, fought through to ninth from a back-of-grid start slot, while Norwegian Tommy Rustad collected the Autosport Independents honours, finishing twelfth overall in his Renault.
Rydell and the pit crew of the TWR-Volvo team made no mistake in the feature race either.
Again making a clean start from the pole, he eased out a modest advantage in the early laps, and regained the lead 20 laps from the end of the 50-lap race after a slick pit visit.
However, for a brief spell after Rydell's stop, when the pursuing Thompson's tyres appeared to be working better than the Volvo man's, the Swede never looked in danger of missing out on his third win of this season.
Recovered from his first-race disappointments, Matt Neal once again took a major role.
The Nissan independent slotted into third behind Thompson at the start, holding off a determined challenge from Reid in the works car.
Reid took 12 laps to find his way past and into third place.
Rydell pitted on lap 25, handing the leader's baton to the Vauxhall of John Cleland for four laps, and retook his rightful place on lap 30 after Tommy Rustad's Renault had enjoyed a moment in the limelight.
Despite the pressure from Thompson, Rydell eased away to a 2.4 second victory over the Honda driver, with Reid third ahead of Menu and Autosport Independents victor Neal.
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