Avanti back on the podium with Davies.

Team Avanti and Matt Davies put their mid-season problems behind them with another podium finish at Donington Park in round nine of the Green Flag British Formula Three Championship.

With financial backing now secured for the rest of the season, Davies was able to get back to the business of racing and his pace showed right from the start of the Donington Park meeting.

For race one, he started from sixth spot on the grid and made a great getaway, moving up to fourth and dicing with James Courtney. The Australian was putting up a stern defence to Davies' advances when the pair went off at the high-speed exit of McLeans corner. In what proved to be the most exciting race of the season so far, Davies was left to rue what could have been.

"We could have finished fourth or higher, and we need the points, but that's racing," he said wistfully.

Race two saw Davies improve on his previous qualifying performance by two places, starting the race in fourth and looking to make another lightning start. This happened for the second race in a row, and the Essex driver got the drop on Anthony Davidson to find himself battling for third place with Mark Taylor. When the Manor Motorsport racer was later judged to have made a jump start, Davies moved into a podium position and, on lap three, squeezed past Andre Lotterer at the Old Hairpin as the Jaguar driver tried to recover from a moment at Redgate, to effectively take second spot.

He duly moved into second place for real when Taylor pitted for his stop-go penalty, and held on to deliver Team Avanti's fifth podium of the season.

"It's a good result getting back to the podium," he said, "I feel like we're back where we were at the beginning of the year and, with the money worries now looking better, I think we can get the season back on track. If I had finished the first race in fourth, we would have scored as many points over the weekend as we have all year - and that shows we have the pace."

Team Avanti will be testing at Pembrey this week in preparation for the upcoming Marlboro Masters of Formula Three at Zandvoort on 5 August.