READING racer Alex Morgan gave a supreme performance to claim his third podium place in three weekends of the SEAT León Eurocup championship.

The Italian crowds at Mugello were treated to a thrilling display of wheel-to-wheel, edge of seat racing, as Morgan extended his string of point scoring positions.

Unnerved by his first outing in Mugello, he relished the challenge where his formidable pace saw him qualify on the second row of the grid for race one.

The Reading-based driver maintained his position with eyes focused on hunting down a podium place towards the end of the race.

Hindered by the addition of a safety car, which minimised his tyre advantage, Morgan chased down the leaders in an exhilarating final two laps.

With just three corners to go until the end of the race, the Reading driver fought his way through to clinch a valuable third step on the podium, in a stunning exhibition of his pure aptitude for racing.

Starting from P7 on the reverse grid, and confident in the raw pace of his Wolf-Power Racing car, Morgan’s aim was to clinch a valuable haul of championship points.

A calamitous incident in the opening stages saw an opponent try to overtake Morgan under yellow flags.

With serious damage to his front left, Morgan controlled his car to the chequered flag, battling against both his tyre degradation and opposition to make his way to a hard-fought sixth place.

Encouraged by his performance, Morgan said: “I had a serious amount of damage to my front left tracking, so I knew at that point it was going to be touch and go, to whether my front left tyre would last the race distance.

“My tyre started to delaminate three laps from the end, so I’m extremely happy to have still scored good points in the situation.”

In a challenging weekend for the Wolf-Power driver, Morgan battled to claim 25 championship points, comfortably extending his fourth place in the championship standings.

And he has now set his sights on a maiden victory, stating: “Overall it was a very good weekend, but with a bit of luck, we could have been looking at two podium finishes, which is brilliant considering it was my first time at this circuit.

“We move into the second half of the season full of confidence and I have some favourite circuits coming up. We will be pushing for that elusive first win of this season.”

The next round takes place at the Red Bull Ring, Austria, on September 10-11.