A late safety car and a series of opportunistic overtaking manoeuvres earned Jake Giddings a podium place in the latest British GT race at Rockingham.

The Wisbech youngster is the reigning GT4 title holder and has a new team-mate this year and a new team – but he drove like the champion he is to annex third place.

'I didn't think we'd have a chance of the top five, let alone the podium, and when I joined the race from 12th I wasn't sure what we'd be able to do,' said Giddings.

'To come through to third is fantastic really and a great result for the whole team.'

The different race formats in British GT are reflected in adjustments to qualifying, with the grid for the two-hour race distance at Rockingham decided by combining the lap times of each driver.

Oz Yusuf set the early pace in the Amateur session in the works Lotus Evora, but was demoted to second in the latter stages by the flying Jamie Chadwick who, with Ross Gunn, went on to take a commanding victory in their Aston Martin.

Sadly, problems restricted Pro driver Gavan Kershaw, from Carlton Rode, in the second session, with the pair lining up fifth on the grid and unable to replicate their early form in the race to end up finishing eighth in the GT4 classification.

Giddings' experience was the opposite, with team-mate Kieran Griffin placed 10th in the opening session with the local racer third in the latter session, leaving the pair aggregated to start from 10th on the grid.

Griffin held 13th in the early laps before exchanging with his team-mate on the 32nd lap with Giddings resuming in 12th place before carving his way up the mid-order before the fortunate safety car bunched up the field.

Stratton Motorsport are still finding their feet in this highly competitive championship, with Jade Edwards leading the way in the Ultra Tek Aston Martin in session one over the two Lotus Evoras.

With George White co-driving this week instead of sister Chloe, due to budgetary reasons, Jade led off the team ahead of the two Lotus' and exchanged with White just after the hour mark with her team-mate bringing the Aston Martin home for 10th place.

The Richard Taffin/James Nash Stratton Motorsport Lotus Evora was three places behind their Aston Martin team-mates while the second Lotus, that of Tim Eakin/Jamie Wall, retired around mid-point.

Jack Lang took his first BRDC Formula 4 podium of the season in the opening race at Rockingham, but it could have been better.

'I broke far too early into the Deene Hairpin on the final lap which let Vaidyanathan past for second, sadly,' admitted the Thetford racer.

Lang was an early retiree in race two, but carved through the field, from grid 13 to be placed sixth in race three.