Touring Cars: Priaulx claims home win

Andy Priaulx kept his lead of the FIA World Touring Car Championship yesterday, winning for the first time in front of his home supporters.

Having endured terrible luck over the past two seasons – slipping off a wet track here in 2006 when leading and experiencing mechanical failure at Silverstone the year before – the 33-year-old BMW driver from Guernsey enjoyed success at the sixth attempt in the WTCC.

Third on the grid for the crucial second race, Priaulx overtook Pierre-Yves Corthals and then Felix Porteiro on the first lap to take the lead – and was never likely to relinquish it.

With four rounds left, Priaulx is 12 points ahead in the championship and favourite to claim a third successive FIA world title.

"Now, I can call this my lucky track," he said. "It has been a tremendous day. Racing in front of so many fans was very inspirational."

If this was an excellent weekend for Priaulx in front of more than 32,000 fans, two of his nearest title competitors, fellow BMW team-mates Augusto Farfus of Brazil and German Jorg Muller, had nightmare races, scoring three points between them.

Of the other British drivers, in race one Alfa Romeo's James Thompson had to settle for second behind Alain Menu, while Colin Turkington, given a wildcard entry, came third. In race two Rob Huff was third ahead of Turkington.