ROB Austin saved the best for last during the final weekend of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit with a sensational drive to third place for Swindon's DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing.

Austin's result, which also secured the first Independents Trophy class win for the squad’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta, was a return to the podium for the first time since the opening event of 2018 at the Kent venue’s shorter Indy Circuit, the driver making an outstanding start from second on the grid in round 30 to surge into an early lead.

With never more than a few tenths of a second separating the top three, Austin eventually finished the 15-lap season finale in third position, just 0.7 seconds adrift of race winner Ashley Sutton and second-placed Josh Cook on the sprint to the line.

“It’s nice to end the season with a podium but, if I’m honest, I really wanted that win,”, said Austin.

“We didn’t manage to hook the car up quite as well as we did at Silverstone which meant I was struggling with the front end washing out on power, leaving me defenceless when Cook got under me exiting Clearways and there was no way I could fight Sutton’s Subaru like Cook did.

“There is still a lot of development work to be done on the Alfa, it’s a process that I definitely underestimated coming in to this year, but the potential in it is unquestionable and the DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing guys have done an amazing job. I would like to thank all of the team, DUO, Northgate, Close Brothers Asset Finance and our fans for their incredible support this year.”

After finishing 15th in the opening race of the weekend, Austin was ninth in the second outing.

“Another great final race of the year, just as Rob did in 2017,'' said elated team principal Simon Belcher.

“It always takes a while to get a new car dialled in, as the mighty works Honda team has shown this season. We really understand the car now and have focused in on where we need to develop more over the closed season. Without doubt, the Alfa Romeo can be a title challenger now.

“Being an independent team, we simply did not have the resource or money to do the amount of pre-season testing you need to do with a new car. The whole team has been amazing this year and we have had great support from all our sponsors, it is hard to believe we have just completed our fifth season in the championship.

Austin ends the first season with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta seventh in the Independents Trophy championship with DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing finishing ninth in the Independents Team standings.