Highlander Lewis bags first GP3 podiumposted in MSPOR25 | 06 | 2011

HIGHLANDER LEWIS WILLIAMSON, strongly tipped to join the Red Bull Young Driver Development Programme, scored the first GP3 Championship pole position and podium finish of his career in the latest round in Valencia in Spain.

And the 21-year-old from Golspie, driving for the MW Arden team owned by Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner and racer Mark Webber, was delighted with his performance on the same circuit which will host tomorrow's F1 European Grand Prix.

"It's been a fantastic day," admitted Williamson (pictured), whose best qualifying time of 1min 58.693secs eased him 0.164s ahead of the Addax of England's Dean Smith with Manor's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs third.

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"Getting my first pole position for the team was fantastic, and to follow that up with second place in the race, and my first podium … well it's just terrific.

"I can't thank the team enough. We've all worked long and hard to get to where we are and while I would have loved to have given them the win, a podium and a second place is brilliant."

Quaife-Hobbs stormed off the line to pass both Smith and polesitter Williamson before the first corner and held the lead right through the race to eventually take the chequered flag just ahead of the Scot. Williamson, whose MW Arden team-mate Mitch Evans completed the podium line-up today after finishing third, lines up seventh on the grid for tomorrow's second GP3 race of the weekend.

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Jim McGill