After two action packed races in front of a 40,000-strong crowd at Brands Hatch, the Green Flag British Touring Car Championship heads to Thruxton for rounds five and six of the UK’s premier motorsport series.

Having shared the billing with the London Champ Car Trophy at Brands Hatch, the BTCC once again displayed the wheel-to-wheel racing the series is renowned for. Two incident-packed races saw Honda Racing’s Matt Neal take the first win after controversially barging past VX Racing’s Paul O’Neill at the final corner. The incident, which resulted in Neal being fined by the stewards, caused O’Neill to slide sideways and lose a certain victory.

Frenchman Yvan Muller, having taken second place in race one, assumed the championship lead after heading VX Racing’s three Astra Coupes to an impressive 1-2-3 finish in race two. Reigning champion James Thompson finished in second place after a battle with MG Sport & Racing’s Colin Turkington. The encounter left Turkington’s MG ZS in the barriers at Graham Hill Bend, while Thompson collected the points in his bid to retain the championship.

Not only will Muller be looking to savour more success on track at Thruxton, he hopes to emerge victorious from a slightly more unusual challenge – the fastest jet-ski crossing from St.Tropez to Corsica. His world record attempt is due to get underway this week, weather conditions permitting.

Muller says of the challenge, “I wanted to have a go at this, as jet-skiing is one of my favourite hobbies, outside of my professional career as a driver for the Vauxhall Racing BTCC team. I try to get out on my jet-ski whenever I can, so I think I stand a good chance of improving on the time of 2 hours 15 minutes that was set by Alexandre de Banne.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to top our 1-2-3 result at Brands Hatch, maybe we can go for the double-treble next weekend, with a podium sweep in both races! I won from pole at Thruxton last year, but of course, the racing is very competitive this year and we will have to fight hard to be at the front. Let’s see what happens.”

Hilton Independents Trophy leader Rob Collard leads the local hopefuls at the Hampshire track, which has a reputation as the fastest road circuit on the calendar. Collard, from Hook in Hants, outperformed all manufacturer teams during pre-season testing at Thruxton and will be hoping for a repeat of his giant-killing achievement.

For those who can’t make it to Thruxton to see the action firsthand, Motors TV will once again show all of the action, live at 12.00BST (Race 1), and 16.10BST (Race 2) on Bank Holiday Monday, with terrestrial coverage on ITV1 on Saturday 1st June at 15.40BST.