Solid start for Thompson at Donington.

Scottish racing driver Andrew Thompson has recorded a solid start to his second season in British F3 after securing two sixth place finishes at Donington Park, Derbyshire, last weekend.

He finished an impressive sixth, and also recorded the third fastest lap, in both races.

The 24-year-old from Dumbarton, near Glasgow, started the weekend by qualifying seventh for race one. In damp, cold and windy conditions at Donington, it was discovered in the second qualifying session that Thompson had been running with a fractured front damper, which finally broke during the second qualifying, leaving him in a disappointing 14th place on the grid for race two.

The damper problem was fixed in time for race day, and in a dry race one, Thompson went into sixth in the early laps, but found himself in a spin after an incident between Australian Will Davison and South American F3 champion, Danilo Dirani.

But he recovered well to overtake highly-rated Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy, and finish in sixth, comfortably ahead of the chasing pack.

With a grid position of 14th for the start of the second race, Thompson didn't have high hopes for a good finish, but when he stalled at the start of a very wet race, it turned out to be a helping hand, enabling him to avoid the first corner carnage which amid the spray and surface water had seen several cars take a detour onto the grass or gravel.

Pushing through the field to seventh, Thompson himself became a victim of the track conditions and found himself off road briefly along with team mate James Walker. Thompson recovered well, losing only one place, and went on to overtake Rossiter and Asmer to begin to close in on the front runners. He finished in sixth to complete a successful start to his 2004 campaign

Thompson, lying sixth in the championship, now heads to Silverstone for the next round with confidence that he's found his form for the year: "I really think the hard work put in by the team in the run up to Donington has paid off, and I hope that now we can go on to Silverstone with our heads up and looking for an even better result."