Matt Neal struggled for pace in the British Touring Car Championship races at Knockhill, leaving the Honda driver with his worst weekend performance of the season after taking home just one point in race three.
Neal’s pace contrasted markedly with that of his team-mate Dan Cammish, who was able to secure pole position on Saturday before taking a double podium in the wet on Sunday.
It left Neal pondering his time loss to Cammish, with the three-time champion only able to put his Civic Type R in 21st for race one, setting the tone for the rest of his weekend.
“This weekend has just gone to emphasise how important qualifying is in the BTCC,” said Neal. “It’s always incredibly tight at Knockhill – I was barely six tenths-of-a-second adrift of Dan, and that equated to 20 places!
“Yes, I was carrying a bit more weight, but that didn’t explain the whole time loss – we tried a different tyre strategy to Dan, which evidently didn’t pay off.”
In race one Neal was eliminated after contact from Matt Simpson, breaking his right-rear suspension, before he finished outside the points in 17th in race two and gained a single point with 15th in race three.
“[The strategy] was then compounded by the rain, because the problem with being down the order in those conditions is visibility – you literally cannot see a thing.
“It got pretty lively out there, although my fun in race one ended when I was helped off the track at the final hairpin.
“Race two was another adventure – I almost went into the end of the pit wall at one stage – and we just lost the front tyres halfway through race three, like a lot of the front wheel-drive cars did.
“You need a bit of luck in the BTCC, and that’s clearly been lacking for us this weekend but on the positive side, we’ll be lighter going to Silverstone and we will bounce back.”
Having taken just four points from the last six races, Neal has slipped to ninth overall in the drivers’ championship standings, 92 points from the top, having been just 16 points adrift six races previously.