Danil De Jong produced a headline-grabbing performance on his return to AUTO GP at Marrakech street circuit in Morocco over the weekend, 6th/7th April, by claiming a fantastic second place finish for Manor MP Motorsport in the first of the events two races.Marking the Dutchmans first competitive outing in the category since last season, having been forced to miss the championship opener a fortnight ago due to a clash with his commitments in the GP2 Series, he wasted no time in showing the pace which brought him several podiums in 2012. Only damage to his suspension in race two prevented De Jong from celebrating double podium success.Joining team-mates Riccardo Agostini and Meindert van Buuren, all three Manor MP Motorsport drivers began the event well during free practice on Saturdaythe first running of the weekend due to the cancellation of testing on Friday, 5th April, because of torrential rain and flooding.Category rookie Agostini, who starred at Monza two weeks ago with pole position on his debut, wasnt all that far away from repeating the result by posting an excellent third fastest time in qualifyinga mere 0.172 seconds away from the top spot. He was closely followed by De Jong with the fourth quickest lap while van Buuren, the least experienced of the trio, was 11th fastest.At the beginning of round three on Saturday afternoon, in much improved weather compared to Friday, Agostini fought his way through into second position with De Jong holding fourth and van Buuren moving up well into ninth. Unfortunately for promising youngster Meindert though, his race was run before the end of the opening lap when he retired to the pits with clutch problems.Back on track, Agostini had slipped to third and he and De Jong ran nose-to-tail during the early stages until Romanias Robert Visoiu managed to split them. Then, on lap seven, a spin for Agostini while pushing hard led to him glancing the barriers with his rear wing.

Going on to immediately make his mandatory pit-stop, and have the car checked over, he rejoined in 10th place and mounted a superb recovery to battle back into fourth at the finish. He also posted the second fastest lap of the race with a time of 1m28.682 seconds, just 0.2 seconds shy of former FIA Formula One World Championship driver Narain Karthikeyans best.De Jong, re-adapting superbly to AUTO GP from his GP2 car, moved into fourth after Agostinis moment and held the place until his stop on lap 13. Great work by the Manor MP Motorsport crew got the Dutch ace back out in fifth and he moved into the podium placings three laps from the end before taking second on the last lap.His result came after a tense build-up to the race when a puncture was discovered on one of the soft compound Kumho tyres he had chosen to run with. The team therefore switched his car onto super-soft tyres before the race got underway.

Saturday was really good for us, some great results and it was fantastic to see Danil on the podium on his first weekend back in AUTO GP, said team principal Sander Dorsman, It wasnt easy though, just before the start there was a puncture with one of the tyresit picked up a staple in the paddockwhich meant we had to make a late change to our strategy.We wanted to run the soft tyres but the puncture meant we had to go with super-soft, so we had to manage that change in strategy but he looked after the tyres really well. We made a good pit-stop and finishing second was a great result.Dorsman added: Riccardo was really quick again this weekend, hes done a great job here like he did at Monza. Fourth in the first race was a strong result but it could be third as there is an appeal going on about [Kimiya] Sato making his pit-stop when the window had closed. We have to wait and see what happens with that.In round four on Sunday, van Buuren was the sole Manor MP Motorsport finisher after Agostini and De Jong both hit trouble. Slow starts for Andrea Roda and Karthikeyan, from second and third on the grid, bunched-up the cars behind and Agostini was caught-up in the ensuing chaos and sent into retirement. De Jong departed the race too on the opening lap, sustaining suspension damage.Dutch teenager van Buuren wasnt free from trouble, he tangled with La Rosa on lap 10 of the race, but the category rookie recovered strongly and raced to a very well deserved sixth place finish to continue his strong start to the 2013 AUTO GP season.Meindert has been great in Marrakech, he did a fantastic job, was fast and was just a bit unlucky really, reflected team principal Dorsman, Depending what happens with the result and the appeal, he could even be fifthhes definitely had a strong weekend in terms of his pace and performance.Hungary will be the next stop on the 2013 AUTO GP calendar, four weeks from now, when rounds five and six of the season take place at the world-famous Hungaroring on 4th/5th May.2013 AUTO GP Driver Standings (after Rd4):6th Riccardo Agostini, 27pts; 9th Danil De Jong, 18pts; 12th Meindert van Buuren, 7pts2013 AUTO GP Under 21 Standings (after Rd4):3rd Riccardo Agostini, 27pts; 5th Danil De Jong, 18pts2013 AUTO GP Team Standings (after Rd4):5th Manor MP Motorsport, 52pts