A SUPERB weekend for Alex Lynn brought him a race win to top a hat-trick of podium finishes in the latest round of the FIA Formula Three European Championship at the Norisring in Germany.
Lynn won the second race of the weekend and was third in the other two.
The victory was his second in the European Championship, and his podium strike rate represented the first time he has finished in the top three in all races at one race weekend in the series.
The 19-year-old from Dunmow was one of the pacesetters throughout the event, held on the tricky streets of Nuremberg. It is a track he had only raced at once before and he was not convinced that he would be as strong as at other venues.
But Lynn qualified his Mercedes-powered Prema Powerteam Dallara fourth, second and third. Incredibly, his fourth position on the grid for race one was just seven thousandths of a second from pole position in an unprecedented close session.
"It's amazing," he said. "That's unbelievably close. Our pace looks good and I'm close enough to pole for all three races.
"I was actually a tenth of a second up in the first sector on one lap in qualifying for races one and two, but I made a mistake and still went faster.
"That could have been pole, but possibly everybody would say that they lost time somewhere."
In a dramatic first race, Lynn moved up to third at the start and remained as one of the closely bunched top six in a race that featured two safety-car periods.
In race two, Lynn made a terrific start to beat poleman Marciello into the first corner. From then on he built a one-second lead over Rosenqvist, but try as he might he could not stretch it any further, as the leading group set a relentless pace in 30-degree heat.
But eventually Rosenqvist had to start defending, and that gave Lynn a useful buffer.
"I made a great start to that one," he said. "I managed to pass Raffaele into turn one.
"For three quarters of the race I was pushing like crazy to pull away from Felix, and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief when I could see that he was having to deal with Lynnander Sims and Raffaele behind him.
"That gave me a nice cushion for having to cope with the backmarkers towards the end of the race.
"It was a really hard race, especially when you're out front, leading the way. I wasn't very strong here last year, so I've come away with a win that I really wasn't expecting. It feels nice."
In the final race, Lynn maintained his third position from the start. After fending off a challenge from his friend and ex-Formula Renault team-mate Tom Blomqvist, he was able to challenge Marciello for second place but could not find a way past the Italian.
The results move Lynn up to third place in the championship, a big confidence boost as the series now heads into a five-week summer break before the next round, which is back in Germany at the Nurburgring on August 16 to 18.