TEENAGE Swindon racer Charlie Nesbitt started his Moto3 Junior World Championship career with an impressive 11th place finish and five championship points in Albacete, Spain, last weekend.

Nesbitt and nearly 50 other riders took part in two 40-minute qualifying sessions on the Saturday, both of which took place in wet conditions.

In his first session, 16-year-old Nesbitt set an impressive one minute 45.372 seconds for his Monlau Engineering team, which put him ninth, and he bettered that in the second session with a 1:44.218 clocking.

On the Sunday morning, the weather had changed significantly and the grid was made up from alternately combining the 40 fastest riders from the two qualifying sessions, with Nesbitt the fastest British rider in 24th place.

As the 18-lap race got under way, Nesbitt immediately gained six places going into the first corner, but a crash at turn four on the opening lap dropped him back to 25th.

By lap five, he was running 21st and showed no nerves amongst a highly competitive field and was up to 17th as the race passed halfway.

With three laps to go, Nesbitt had made it up to 13th place but he was not finished there and was able to climb up two further positions by the time the chequered flag fell.

“The result was pretty good. Our goal was to try and reach 15th place and grab a first championship point, so to come 11th and get five was a fantastic feeling,” said Nesbitt.

“Thanks to Scott Redding and Michael Bartholemy. The team have been fantastic and given me so much help and confidence. Also a big thank you to SRS and Swindon Electrical for their help too.”

Next up for Nesbitt is a test at Aragon on the weekend of May 13-14 before the team head off to le Mans for the second round of the championship the following weekend.