Podium Streak Continues For Morgan

Alex Morgan continued his run of podium finishes in the 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup, finishing in second place in this weekend’s second race at Oulton Park, the fourth round of the season. The Bridgend-born driver has now scored podiums in four successive race weekends, and his strong results from this weekend have promoted him to second place in the championship standings. Morgan was involved in one of the most closely fought qualifying battles in the Renault UK Clio Cup at Oulton Park. Reading-based Morgan, who is competing in his maiden saloon car season, set the fourth fastest time in a session in which the top four were separated by just 0.049s. He secured himself a fourth place start in race one and a front row starting spot from second for race two. In Saturday’s race, Morgan initially slipped down to sixth after the start. However, after an early safety car period he moved up to fourth, which he maintained throughout the remainder of the race. He finished just off the podium, crossing the line just two seconds after the podium trio. Stefan Hodgetts took the lead at the first corner in Sunday’s race, passing pole-sitter Paul Rivett and Morgan. However, Morgan fought hard and passed Rivett on the second lap to retake second. He held onto that position for the remainder of the race, taking the second step of the podium. Speaking about his weekend, Alex Morgan said:

I knew this was going to be a crucial weekend for the championship. I knew there was still a lot to do after testing as we were still quite far off the pace but we worked it out for qualifying and took P4 and P2 on the grid for the races, despite me behind held up on my second set of new tyres. The first race was very difficult after the bad start, but I had the pace to progress and fought back to fourth. In race two once I had got back up to second, I worked for more but it’s very hard to overtake at Oulton and Hodgetts did a great job of defending. The safety car ultimately prevented me from mounting a challenge for the lead. I am happy with the results though and getting back up to second in the championship was the aim of the weekend. We’re now at the halfway point of the season and I feel we are well placed to seriously contend for the championship.

The next round of the series takes place in two weeks on 22-23 June at Croft in North Yorkshire. Morgan heads to Croft second in the standings, 22 points behind Rivett.