Morgan Makes It Three Podiums In Three Weekends

Bridgend-born Alex Morgan continues to impress in his maiden saloon car season, with the Reading-based racer claiming another podium at Thruxton in the 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup in round five of the championship. It was, however, a mixed weekend for Alex who struggled with a lack of grip throughout Sunday’s race and had to settle for a 12th place finish. In an incredibly competitive qualifying session on Saturday, where the top ten were separated by just half a second, Alex qualified his Team Pyro car in 10th place for Saturday’s race with a fastest lap time of 1:25.409. His second quickest lap, used to determine the grid for Sunday, put Alex in ninth place. On a dry and bright day at Thruxton on Saturday, Alex began from the fifth row of the grid from 10th for round five of his 2013 campaign. He had a great race despite getting hit on the first corner and drove the whole race with damage, scything through the pack during the 12 laps to work his way up to claim the final podium position, finishing behind winner Lee Pattison, who led from lights to flag, and his Team Pyro colleague Josh Files, who finished in second. It was a tight finish, with Alex crossing the line just 3.5 seconds behind Pattison. Sunday’s 12-lap race was held in similar conditions to Saturday, however the result was unfortunately not to be the same. Alex was shuffled down the order, falling to 12th on the opening lap. On lap six he was overtaken by a charging Paul Rivett, but regained a position on the final lap past Simon Belcher to finish 12th. Morgan said about the weekend:

Qualifying did not go to plan at all. We really struggled with understeer, but we hoped it would be sorted ahead of the race on Saturday. The start was always going to be crucial, I got tagged just off the line so I was worried that was race over straight away. The car still felt quick so I carried on and then found myself up in third – I couldn’t have asked for much more from 10th on the grid. We struggled throughout the whole weekend with the car really, we managed to get a good result on Saturday but we need to look into what went wrong this weekend and look to make improvements ahead of Oulton Park.

Alex is now in third place in the championship points behind Team Pyro team-mate Josh Files and Paul Rivett. The next race takes place at Oulton Park on 8-9 June.