DAN Eaves led home teammate Matt Neal in a Team Halfords 1-2 in the third of Sunday's Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races in front of the live ITV cameras.

The Moreton-in-Marsh ace led all the way from pole position while championship leader Neal had to fight his way through from fifth in his Honda Integra.

Eaves' victory, his fourth of the season, has moved him back into second in the points standings behind his teammate.

Vauxhall's Colin Turkington and Yvan Muller, winners earlier in the day, could only finish seventh and eighth in the climax at the Darlington circuit.

"It was good to get back to winning ways and the race was really comfortable from pole on a track that makes overtaking difficult," Eaves recalled.

"I was more than happy to settle for tenth spot in race two after getting nudged by Plato and was confident of winning from pole."

Race one saw Northern Ireland's Turkington lead all the way from pole position to take his first victory for Vauxhall.

Muller finished second and Neal third after they had swapped positions at the start.

Officials called an early end to the race after Independent driver Mark Proctor crashed heavily.

Turkington started race two from pole position but was passed by Muller into the first corner. Their positions remained unchanged for the rest of the race, with Muller setting the fastest lap on the way to his third victory of the season ahead of Turkington.

Muller's win lifted him up to second in the championship, behind Neal and ahead of Eaves, both of whom lost time and places in controversial incidents with Plato.

Neal fell to sixth when he and Plato collided at the hairpin. Then Eaves was sent spinning down to tenth when he tangled with Plato as they exited the high-speed chicane.

Eaves' tenth place at least gave him pole position for race three, thanks to the championship's top ten reversed grid rule, and he took full advantage to lead from start to finish for his fourth win of 2005.

Neal, starting from fifth, climbed to second and was only six-hundredths of a second behind Evesham-born Eaves.

Eaves also crucially set the race's fastest lap to earn the bonus point that has moved him back into second in the championship.

"There are still one or two niggly little things wrong with the car but nothing that hasn't stopped me finishing," Eaves added.

"It's just upset my momentum but I'm hoping we can iron them out this weekend and get another victory."

Team Halfords remain the dominant force in the Independents Trophy, with Neal leading Eaves in the drivers' standings ahead of reigning champion WSR's Rob Collard, Tom Chilton and James Kaye, in Synchro Motor-sport's Honda Civic.

The next round heads to Ireland this weekend for round six at Mondello Park.