First Seat Eurocup Podium For Morgan

Alex Morgan claimed his first podium finish in the 2015 SEAT Leon Eurocup, finishing second after a strong and determined drive in round six at Silverstone on 7 June. The fantastic result followed a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s round five of the series, giving the Baporo Motorsport driver a 13-point haul from the weekend in his series campaign. Having never raced previously at the new Silverstone GP circuit, Bridgend-born Alex was nevertheless determined for top-five results from the weekend for his home race. Now living in Reading, he took to the Northamptonshire circuit in his #22 SEAT Leon Cup Racer to set the sixth-fastest lap time of 2:15.174 in the first free practice session, whilst learning the circuit. During the second practice session, he picked up the pace and shaved more time off his lap to achieve a 2:14.943. However, Alex was saving himself for qualifying. The Baporo Motorsport driver lapped the 5.9km circuit in 2:12.75 during his penultimate lap of the 30-minute session to secure a fifth-place start on the grid for race one and fourth-place start for the second race of the weekend, achieving his aim of a top-five qualifying position. Alex was determined to continue his strong start to the weekend as he lined up on the grid for the first of this weekend’s races. He was quick off the line at the start of race one, overtaking Julien Briché for fourth place and continuing to dice with the French driver for the first half of the race before breaking away from the JSB Competition pilot. On lap six, Alex’s Baporo Motorsport team-mate Manuel Giao made his way into the fight for fourth, yet Alex defended hard to keep the Portuguese at bay, crossing the line fourth to claim his highest placing position of the season so far. But he was set to do even better in race two. Starting from fourth, he charged into the first corner in race two to come out second behind pole-sitter and race leader Jonathan Cocker. Spanish driver Jordi Oriola put the pressure on Alex for second but the Brit was determined to keep hold of his position on the first lap. With the pack jostling for positions behind, 2013 UK Renault Clio Cup Vice-Champion Alex set his sights on race leader Cocker ahead and began his chase. He pushed forward with strong, consistent laps, but couldn’t quite reel in the lead from his fellow Brit, and in the closing laps had to defend from Oriola who put in a final charge for second place. Alex held strong though and defended well crossing the line second to take his first podium of the season and also his first in the SEAT Leon Eurocup in front of his home crowd. Commenting on the weekend Morgan said:

This weekend has been fantastic! To achieve my first podium in the SEAT Leon Eurocup is brilliant, and to have done this at Silverstone in front of my family, friends, sponsors and home crowd has made it even more special. Silverstone is a brilliant circuit and I was determined to do well here and show how competitive we are. As always, Baporo has been fantastic and have done a brilliant job this weekend. Now, I want to continue on this positive streak and head to Austria for more of the same. The car is feeling good, we know we can take more points and I’m really pleased with our position in the standings at such an early stage in this new championship. I can't wait to for the next race weekend now!

From the success at Silverstone, Alex secured a fantastic 13 points, putting him sixth in the series’ standings after six races. Alex will next travel to the Red Bull Ring in Austria on 4-5 July to contest rounds seven and eight of the 2015 season.