Touring Cars: Priaulx keeps title challenge alive with two podium slots

Britain's Andy Priaulx kept his World Touring Car Championship challenge alive with two top-three places at Magny-Cours yesterday.

The Guernsey-born driver, who won the series last season, took second in race one before overcoming the reverse grid system to claim third in the final encounter. His fellow BMW driver, Jörg Müller, took maximum points from both races to move into championship contention.

The German trails his brother Dirk by four points and Priaulx is six points off the lead, giving BMW a clean sweep of the top three positions.

James Thompson suffered a disappointing day as he struggled with weight penalties imposed for his opening-round success.

The Alfa Romeo driver won race two at Monza but had to settle for ninth and 11th in today's two races. The Chevrolet driver Rob Huff was 16th and 19th. The next round of the series is at Silverstone on 15 May.

At Thruxton, Dan Eaves claimed a remarkable hat-trick of wins in the British Touring Car Championship.

The Cheltenham-born Honda driver arrived with just one top-class race win to his name but a stunning day's work saw him leave with three more - and the championship lead.

Eaves won race one and with that finishing order deciding the grid for the following contest, he was in pole position to repeat his success.

The grid was reversed for race three but the handicap of fighting past seven rivals did not deter the 29-year-old, who battled his way through to complete a rare treble.

Eaves' stunning display rocketed him from third place in the standings to top spot, with his Honda team-mate Matt Neal in second after third, second and fourth-placed finishes today.