ROB Austin won his first race of the British Touring Car Championship season with success at Rockingham.

The Evesham driver triumphed in the third race in Northamptonshire, the circuit where he recorded his maiden victory last year, despite qualifying 13th on the grid in his Audi A4 at the start of the day.

Austin, who finished on the podium twice at Knockhill last month, moved up to ninth in the standings ahead of the next meeting at Silverstone in two weekends time.

Colin Turkington won the first two races to extend his lead at the top of the championship to 55 points from Jason Plato.

But it was a meeting to forget for Pershore rivals Honda Yuasa Racing who failed to register a podium place.

Having finished eighth in the first two races, Gordon Shedden’s Civic Tourer was damaged beyond repair in a first lap collision in the final outing.

The incident also seriously dented the Scot’s title hopes as the 2012 champion now lies 64 points behind Turkington and nine back from second-placed Plato.

Team-mate Matt Neal remains seventh in the standings following respective race finishes of 17th, 14th and ninth.

Austin, using a soft tyre set-up, was 12th in the first race but second in the fifth and he benefitted from the race three reverse grid draw to line-up on the front row with Alain Menu.

The Exocet Racing star made a blistering start and immediately jumped past pole-sitter Menu but the pair were even halfway towards the infamous turn two hairpin.

From there, Austin managed the gap back to the VW for the remainder of the contest to score his first win of the season, while Menu took a first podium since his 2000 championship-winning campaign.

“I didn’t think this was going to come after qualifying to be honest,” Austin said. “We made a lot of changes and were flying in race two so we left the set-up as it was.

“My old boss (Alain Menu) kept me honest but this is just such an amazing win for the team.”

Honda’s difficult day was compounded as the squad relinquished the lead in the manufacturers’ standings, with MG now holding a 22-point advantage.