ALFA Romeo racer Rob Austin remained inside the overall top 10 after finishing among the points at the second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship outing at Donington Park last weekend.

After a dream start to Swindon's DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing’s first season with its brand new Alfa Romeo Giulietta at Brands Hatch three weeks earlier, where Austin took a podium finish in round three, he endured a tough qualifying session.

Starting 20th on the grid for race one, he made his way inside the top 15 and then overcame contact in the second encounter to recover from the tail of the field into 21st position.

From there, Austin gained no fewer than 10 places in race three to post an event best of 11th position.

“It’s been a tough weekend but at least we also have lots of positives to take away as well”, said Austin, who had begun the weekend with 48kg of ‘success’ ballast in the Alfa Romeo, as a result of his top four championship placing after Brands Hatch, which he had to carry during qualifying and the first race at Donington..

“We are not where we want to be with the car at all yet but the potential is clear and I have no doubt that once we get on top of it, this car will be a regular race winner.

“With a bit more time to analyse the data after qualifying we are confident we know where we went wrong but, as we keep saying, this is a brand new car so we’re constantly learning with every lap.

“You’re not going to get it right every time when you’re still learning, but it’s important we understand what the problem was.''

He added: “In race one I had a really good start and made good progress, but as everyone else got up to pace and I was already maxed out it was clear we didn’t have the pace we needed to stay in that position.

"We made some significant changes for race two and we were still set for a really good points haul, right up until I was turned around at the chicane.

“The changes worked really well so the car was quick in that race and a top 10 would have been comfortably achievable, maybe even the top six but it just wasn’t to be. We’ve taken some positives from race three too, we were generally the quickest runner of the 14 cars on the hard tyre and to come from 21st to 11th with those tyres on, I think we have to be happy with that.”

The championship returns with rounds seven, eight and nine on Sunday, May 20, at Hampshire's Thruxton circuit – DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing’s home event.