HOPES of another podium finish were dashed for Scammonden racer Daniel Lloyd at the Norisring in Germany.

However, Lloyd recorded a top-four finish on his race debut at the street circuit to consolidate third place overall in the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup driver standings.

Qualifying on the second row, the category rookie aimed to challenge for his third podium of the season but after being blocked out at the first corner, he had plenty of work to do.

Clawing his way back up to fifth on the opening lap, having dropped to seventh, Lloyd maintained his place following a short Safety Car period and, after gradually closing down the cars ahead, he produced a tremendous pass on lap 18 at the final hairpin – Dutzendteich Kehre – to grab fourth.

“I had an absolutely mint start but into the first corner I got stuck behind the third placed car on the inside – whoever was in second braked really early so I had to brake hard as well and then one car went past me on the inside over the kerbs and two others went round the outside”, explained Lloyd.

“That dropped me to seventh but I was back up to fifth out of the chicane.

“At the restart I was caught off-guard a bit but it was okay and then I decided to save some ‘push-to-pass’ boosts for later in the race.

“With about six laps to go I still had seven boosts and then I managed to pull a really good move on Aditya (Patel).

“He came back at me, so that ruined my chances of going after the other drivers.

“I am a bit disappointed really to have not made it onto the podium.

“We’re still third in the championship though, and the points gap isn’t that big, so it’s all still wide open. I’ve just got to concentrate on getting good finishes every weekend to keep racking up the scores.”

Lloyd now has a five-week break from competition with the sixth round at the Nurburgring on August 6.

2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Driver Standings (after round 5): 1 Mateusz Lisowski 188 pts, 2 Stefano Proetto 160, 3 Daniel Lloyd 153.