The rain came down at Brands Hatch as the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) drew to a close, with the weather dampening Jason Plato and the MG KX Momentum Racing team's championship charge. To win the championship in the team's first season back in the premier 4-wheeled motorsport series was always going to be a tough challenge and the team put in a huge effort to take the fight all the way to the wire.

Race one of the day saw the drizzle fall over the Brands Hatch circuit, as the BTCC field formed up for the first of the final three races of the 2012 season. The three championship contenders were line a-stern on the grid in 3rd, 5th and 7th with Jason sandwiched between his two Honda rivals. The race got underway and through the first few hectic laps it became apparent that the MG6 was lacking some pace in the wet conditions and was suffering with understeer. Jason battled away valiantly and brought the car home in 8th position. Andy Neate drove a solid race from the back of the grid to come home in 13th to add to his championship tally.

Despite predictions for clearer skies in the afternoon, the weather had worsened if anything for race two. The Triple Eight team had worked hard to improve the handling of the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 though and Jason gave it his all from eighth on the grid and moved forwards to chase the Honda's down, despite moving through to 5th it wasn't to be for JP as Gordon Shedden finished 2nd in the race to gain sufficient points to secure his maiden BTCC title for Honda. Andy came home in 12th position to score more points, having been involved in a number of close battles.

Race Three of the day continued in a similar vein to the rest of the day both on-track and with the weather; more heavy rain. The reverse grid of race three put Jason in P3 on the grid, however the car continued to struggle in the damp conditions and Jason battled hard to come home in 8th and secure 3rd place in the championship; a remarkable achievement for MG's first season back in the BTCC. Andy's season ended on a low as technical issues forced him into the pits on the first lap of the race, which the team were unable to fix.

Jason Plato (#99), BTCC Standings 3rd - 376 points:

"Naturally I'm disappointed, I came here to win the championship and it hasn't happened. But we gave it a good go this year and ran the Honda's close, which is an incredible achievement considering the late start we had to the season with this project. I'm very proud of every pole, podium and win we have had this season and we couldn't have done it without the fantastic support of all of our partners and the superb Triple Eight team."

Andy Neate (#44), BTCC Standings: 16th - 79 points:

"A tough end to a tough season, it has been character building. I managed to score some points in the first two races and the car was improving throughout the day and so to not get to fight it out in the final race of the season is a little disappointing, but that is motor racing."

Ian Harrison, Team Principal, BTCC Standings:

Teams - 5th - 446 points, Manufacturers - 2nd 722 - points:

"As I sit here now I'm very disappointed. But looking back we've won six races and had five poles so a great season, we've just come up a little short at the very end. All the guys in the team have worked so hard in this first year of the MG KX Momentum team to give us a shout of winning the championship today, it hasn't quite happened but I'm very proud of what we have achieved and look forward to rectifying the situation in 2013."

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: On the back of a disappointing result in Korea the team have worked extremely hard to address the balance inconsistencies that affected both cars. We believe that we have found a solution and look forward to testing and optimising around the updated car. The weather forecast in Delhi is good with predicted dry running throughout the weekend in reasonably high track temperatures and, as ever, the aim is to keep both the Pirelli hard and soft tyres within their optimal working window throughout the weekend.

Pastor Maldonado:

India is enjoyable because it's so different and the track is one of my favourites. It's still a new track but it has a good combination of medium and high speed corners, chicanes and good changes in direction. Coming to the final few races, making the most of our cars potential is going to be important, so hopefully we can score points here and put ourselves in a strong position for the final three races.

Bruno Senna:

I'm looking forward to this weekend because India has a different atmosphere to many other Grand Prix and it's always a unique place to visit. As a new track the surface is very smooth and the layout is fast and flows well with some high speed corners which will suit our car. We should therefore be looking to improve on our performance in Korea.

Rémi Taffin, Head of Renault Sport F1 Track Operations:

The first part of the track is mainly composed of straights, including an awesome 1.12km straight, the longest on the calendar. Unusually this straight dips in the middle. The second part of the track is a lot more intricate, with all the corners linking together, so driveability will be very important. The challenge will be getting the right balance between the responsiveness needed for the off-camber turns, such as the chicane at turns 13 and 14, and longer corners such as the radial turn 10, which need a steady application of power. At the start of the weekend dirt on the racing line and pollution within the atmosphere can have a detrimental effect on air filter performance, so this will need careful monitoring during P1 and P2.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director:

For the Indian Grand Prix, we've nominated the P Zero Silver hard tyres and P Zero Yellow soft tyres, as we did in 2011. Along with everybody else though, this time we benefit from much greater knowledge of the track and the conditions so we can afford to be a little less conservative. It's quite a demanding circuit for the tyres due to high ambient temperatures, some fast corners and notable elevation changes, as well as a long straight. All these factors contribute to putting plenty of energy through the rubber. We are also expecting to see a considerable degree of track evolution over the course of the weekend. Generally speaking, our tyre compounds are softer this year but we should still definitely see a performance gap between the two nominations selected for India, which will open up a number of different opportunities for strategy. Coupled with the wide and open track layout, this means that there is plenty of potential for overtaking as well.

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