Australia's Nick McBride starred during round six of the Protyre Formula Renault UK 'Finals Series' at Rockingham in Northamptonshire on Saturday, 12th November, with a fantastic drive to fourth place for Manor Competition - tantalisingly just 0.7 seconds shy of a maiden category podium.The 20-year-old from Melbourne, in only his second weekend of Formula Renault UK action since stepping-up from the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, took a best finish of ninth at Snetterton a week earlier but eclipsed that with a marked improvement at Rockingham.Qualifying as the quickest of Manor's two drivers - regular competitor Jordan King not taking part this weekend after electing to concentrate on European testing - McBride posted the eighth fastest time to secure a row four start for each Rockingham encounter. Fellow rookie Hector Hurst, meanwhile, would start 12th and 14th for the two races.Holding eighth early on during a damp fifth round, after an early Safety Car period he was challenged hard by 19-year-old Formula Renault BARC graduate Hurst but gained a position on lap seven when Josh Webster out-braked himself at Deene Hairpin while running in fifth.McBride profited to take seventh but Hurst slipped to ninth, the latter then pushed back to 10th as Webster recovered. McBride began to close down Dan De Zille as the race entered its closing stages but through the back-markers he lost seventh to European racer John Bryant-Meisner. For the final race of the championship, round six, which took place on an almost completely dry track, McBride made a sensational start from eighth on the grid and quickly moved into the top four. Hurst was much less fortunate and got shuffled a long way down the order to 18th position after several cars had a coming together out of Deene on the run to Yentwood.Due to the lap one incident the Safety Car was deployed at the beginning of lap three but after the lap five re-start, it was only a matter of time before racing was brought under caution once again. By this point, Hurst had worked his way impressively into 13th as McBride continued to hover around the podium placings.No sooner had racing resumed than the Safety Car made a third appearance. At the final re-start on lap 12, McBride continued to hold fourth and over the final six laps he pressured Thomas Jager for third but just missed out on the podium by 0.7 seconds, while also defending well from Webster. Hurst made good progress during the closing stages, the Hampshire racer working his way up from outside the top 10 into ninth place - fending off Red Bull-backed Eurocup FR 2.0 competitor Daniil Kvyat in the process. In the final championship standings, McBride ends his rookie Formula Renault campaign seventh in the points with Hurst 11th and King 12th."We've been really happy with the progress Nick and Hector have made over the last two weekends, it's not easy to come into Formula Renault UK against such an experienced and competitive field and be quick but they both managed it", said Manor team co-owner Sarah Shaw."Nick was really close to the podium in the second race and Hector raced well to get another couple of top 10s. We're definitely happy with the level of performance they've shown. This has been a tough year on the whole for the team but we aim to bounce back stronger than ever in 2012."Final 2011 Formula Renault UK 'Finals Series' Standings:7th Nick McBride, 79pts; 11th Hector Hurst, 60pts; 12th Jordan King, 51pts