Race three at Silverstone saw Mat Jackson claim his third win of the season, while Fabrizio Giovanardi guaranteed that only a disastrous weekend at Brands Hatch would leave Jason Plato with a chance of stealing the title away from him.

The rain had stopped ahead of the final race, but the track was still wet as the cars lined up on the grid. Only Matt Neal gambled with anything than wet tyres all round, opting for slicks on the front of his Vectra.

Mike Jordan started the race from pole position for John Guest Racing, but it was Team Halfords driver Gordon Shedden that led the pack through the first corner, ahead of Jordan and Rob Collard.

Shedden’s time at the front was short though as he ran wide at Becketts, allowing Tom Onslow-Cole through into the lead. The Scot just didn’t have the pace to live with the leaders and rapidly fell down the order, losing out to Jason Plato, Colin Turkington and Mat Jackson in quick succession.

Like Shedden, Tom Onslow-Cole wasn’t in the lead for long. Next up to head the field was Jason Plato, who passed the Vauxhall driver at Woodcote on lap seven, setting him up to close the points gap to Giovanardi, who was running down in eighth at this stage.

Plato looked reasonably comfortable at the front, with a three-way battle for second between Onslow-Cole, Jackson and Adam Jones, while Giovanardi was sitting patiently in sixth after passing Shedden and Mike Jordan. There was another battle at the bottom of the top ten between Tom Chilton, Michael Doyle and Rob Collard.

The contest for second was resolved in favour of Mat Jackson, who again showed strong pace to pass Onslow-Cole and begin the chase for race leader Plato. Onslow-Cole also lost out to Adam Jones, who took third position away from the Vauxhall driver.

In a repeat of the second race, Jason Plato’s pace started to drop off in the closing stages. Mat Jackson was clearly quicker than the former champion and it was a case of when rather than if the BMW took the lead. After running with the SEAT for just over a lap, Jackson made his move at Becketts on lap 16. Adam Jones also passed Plato later that lap.

As if to rub salt into Plato’s wounds, the next cars in his mirrors were the Vectras of Onslow-Cole and Giovanardi. Unsurprisingly, Giovanardi was allowed to pass his younger teammate and it was the Italian who made sure Plato did not finish on the podium. On the final lap, Plato lost one further position, this time to Colin Turkington, although he managed to fend off Onslow-Cole, to finish fifth.

The podium was filled by Jackson, Jones and Giovanardi, with Turkington fourth and Plato fifth. Tom Onslow-Cole finished sixth ahead of Rob Collard in seventh. Michael Doyle scored a career best, finishing eighth – his older Honda Civic beating both of the newer Team Halfords cars – while Tom Chilton and Stephen Jelley completed the top ten.