Britain’s Daniel Lloyd recorded a highly competitive top four finish on his race debut at the Norisring in Germany on Saturday, 2nd July, to consolidate third place overall in the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup driver standings.Qualifying on the second row of the grid at the 1.4 mile (2.3 kilometre) street circuit, within exactly 0.3 seconds of pole position, the category rookie aimed to challenge for his third podium of the season but after being baulked 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, the Huddersfield racer 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. This move ensured he departed the Nuremberg track still inside the championship top three.“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 Daniel.“That dropped me to seventh but I was back up to fifth out of the chicane. At the re-start I was caught off-guard a bit but it was ok 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 though so that ruined my chances of going after the others.”In practice on Friday, 1st July, Daniel was eighth fastest during his first ever track session at the Norisring with a lap of 1m03.047 seconds – placing him just 0.3 seconds shy of the outright pace which was set by invitational ‘Legends Cup’ runner Jan Lammers, winner of the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours Race.Saturday morning’s qualifying session brought a marked improvement in lap times with Daniel steering his bio-CNG fuelled 2.0-litre VW Scirocco R-Cup to fourth fastest with a lap of 1m00.799 seconds, placing him on the second row alongside championship points leader Mateusz Lisowski.Holding fourth comfortably into the first hairpin on lap one of the race, the Briton did a terrific job to slice his way back into fifth just prior to the appearance of the Safety Car – necessary to recover the stricken Volkswagen of JD Mobley.At the re-start, Daniel wasn’t close enough to challenge fourth-placed Aditya Patel but he steadily closed on the Indian driver as the laps clicked off. Into lap 18, just 0.5 seconds split the pair and it only looked a matter of time before positions would change. So it proved on the very same lap, Daniel producing a brilliant move to cut to the inside at the final hairpin to take fourth place and 40 points.“I am a bit disappointed really to have not made it onto the podium”, added the 19-year-old, “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.”Daniel now has a lengthy five week break from competition with the sixth round of the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup taking place on Saturday, 6th August, at the Nurburgring in Germany. Before then, there is still the opportunity to watch full replays of this weekend’s Norisring race action on digital satellite and cable channel Motors TV – please check listings for full details and scheduling.To keep up with all the latest news regarding Daniel’s participation in the VW Scirocco R-Cup, please visit his official website www.daniellloydracing.com, follow him on Twitter @Daniellloyd23 and check out his exclusive blog at the Motors TV website www.motorstv.comProvisional 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Driver Standings (after Rd5):1st Mateusz Lisowski, 188pts; 2nd Stefano Proetto, 160pts; 3rd Daniel Lloyd, 153pts