Auto GP newcomer MP Motorsport almost achieved its maiden podium in only its second outing in the championship at Oschersleben in Germany over the weekend, 30th/31st July - a busy event for the Dutch team in which it also contested the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup races.Rising teenage star Daniël De Jong, who debuted with the Oudenbosch squad in Auto GP a couple of weeks ago at Donington Park in the UK, produced a fantastic performance in very difficult conditions during the second encounter, coming within just a couple of laps of finishing in second position.Rain before the start threatened to shake up proceedings but De Jong made a great start from third on the 'reverse grid', having finished sixth in the opening race, and passed Pasquale Di Sabatino on the opening lap before setting off after leader - and eventual winner - Giovanni Venturini.Piling on the pressure, the MP Motorsport racer challenged hard and almost managed to pull off a pass for the lead on the 11th of 17 laps. Late in the race heavy rain started to fall and, disappointingly for the Dutchman, an unfortunate moment two laps from the finish dropped him to seventh - a real hammer blow after such a superb drive.As at Donington Park during its Auto GP debut, the team made a terrific call during Saturday's first race to bring De Jong in early for his mandatory pit-stop. This enabled him to climb into an eventual finish of sixth place, having started 11th on the grid, matching his previous best."We're obviously disappointed, for Daniël especially, not to have finished on the podium in race two as he did a really fantastic job", said team principal Sander Dorsman, "In the first race we made the right call to pit early, that worked out really well, and then in race two he drove impressively in some tough conditions. It's a real shame there was a slight mistake, I think we all deserved second place."British racer King takes top six for MP Motorsport on FR NEC debut First year single-seater racer Jordan King impressed MP Motorsport on his debut outing with the team during the Oschersleben rounds of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, the British driver achieving a top six finish in the second of the weekend's two races.In race one, despite slipping back to 15th place at the start from the fourth row of the grid, King - who was accompanied to Germany by Tony Shaw, co-owner and race engineer for top UK team Manor Competition - raced well and carved his way back up the order into the top eight.MP Motorsport regulars Karl-Oscar Liiv and Alexey Chuklin had mixed fortunes but both did enjoy good results. In race one, Estonian driver Liiv had to retire on the fourth lap - having qualified the strongest of the team's trio in seventh place. In race two though, he recorded a ninth place finish, up from 11th on the grid.For Russian racer Chuklin, race one delivered perhaps his best performance yet in Formula Renault with an excellent drive through to 13th position after an equally good qualifying in which he posted the 15th fastest time. In race two on Sunday, he finished in 16th place."All three guys did a good job in Formula Renault this weekend", commented Dorsman, "Jordan was very strong on his debut with us and Karl-Oscar and Alexey both did well, although Karl-Oscar had some bad luck of course in the first race. It's been a strong weekend for the team in both Auto GP and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, we're quite happy with how everything turned out in the end."Formula Renault 2.0 NEC resumes just under two weeks from now on 13th/14th August at one of MP Motorsport's home venues, Zandvoort in The Netherlands. Following that, the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 squad will be in action at Silverstone in the UK on 20th/21st August - at the same event, De Jong will return to his regular seat in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.