MAX Cook made a superb start to the season at Silverstone by finishing sixth in the HEL Performance Motostar Moto3 GP British Championship in spectacular style.

Cook took to the famous circuit on Friday for the first time in his career and with no track time in free practice, the 13-year-old went into qualifying struggling with a base set-up.

He kept his head and showed great maturity, consolidating his qualifying in 18th position.

A strong start in race one saw him move up a couple of places in the opening laps and his impressive pace soon saw him getting the upper hand over Tom Booth-Amos, Dani Saez, Dennis Koopman and Sander Kroeze in the middle part of the race.

Continuing his charge through the field, Cook dug deep on board his HRC Honda Moto3 and claimed 12th-place.

Cook got off to a blistering start in race two and he was up to seventh after lap one before putting in some stunning lap times and moving up to sixth by the end of the race.

The two races combined awarded him 14 points, putting him ninth in the championship.

“At the moment, I feel absolutely brilliant,” Cook said. “After a tough start to the weekend, I thought I’d do well to come away with a couple of points, but to come away in the top 10 and have 14 points is awesome.

“During the races, I just wanted to get my head down and do my best, but enjoy it as well.

“The circuit was new to me and to begin with, was pretty scary, as most of the corners are really fast and I’ve never ridden a circuit like it. But once I got used to it, I absolutely loved it, especially in the dry.

“I’m looking forward to seeing MotoGP here later this year as I sort of know what they have to deal with.”