Michael Lyons moved into the top three of the GTS Class championship standings during the second event of the International GT Open season at Portimao in southern Portugal over the weekend, 11th/12th May, thanks to his, and team-mate Matteo Berettas, second podium of the campaign.Although qualifying proved problematic for the two AF Corse drivers, and contact in Saturdays race resulted in a bitterly disappointing retirement, 22-year-old Michael starred in the second encounter where the duo were less than six seconds shy of a maiden GTS victory.Sunday was definitely a good day in the office, said the Felsted driver, Its great to be back on the podium, we knew we were competitive from the off this weekend but a few things didnt go our way in qualifying, then Matteo was knocked out of race one before I had chance to get in the car. Race two was good though and weve made progress in the championship too which is what we needed.Beginning the visit to the Autdromo Internacional do Algarve with a strong performance in testing, confidence was high of a challenge for the GTS class pole positions on Saturday but circumstances dictated otherwise.For race two, round four, Michael had qualified an uncharacteristic 10th in class, 16th overall, after missing out on the lap he knew he was capable of in his qualifying session but was confident of a suitably competitive drive through the order.Progressing superbly during his opening stint at the wheel of the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, the British ace climbed into fourth in GTS, sixth overall, before handing over the car to Beretta in the mandatory driver change pit-stop.On rejoining the track, the Italian was 12th overall and eighth in class and mounted a similarly strong drive to race through into second in GTS and fourth overall by lap 20. Although pushed back to fifth by the Super GT car of ex-FIA Formula One World Championship racer Andrea Montermini, Beretta comfortably maintained second in class to the flag on lap 28.In Saturdays third round, Michael was unable to get any track time when Beretta was collected by the Corvette of Diederich Sijthoff on lap 14 of the raceresulting in retirement to the pits from fifth in class, ninth overall.After practice on Friday morning we were really quite confident, we were quick and thought wed fight for both GTS poles, explained Michael, In qualifying though, they put out a warning about cement dust on the track after Matteo had gone outhe was quickest early on but when the track cleaned up he dropped back. In my session I just didnt get a good enough lap in unfortunately.The race one incident was totally the other drivers fault, its disappointing as we had the pace for another good result. At least weve got some more good points going to the Nurburgring, the race two result has put us back on track for sure. Ive been on the podium there before in GT3 so were feeling confident for the next round and looking forward to it.Rounds five and six of the International GT Open season will take place three weeks from now, over the weekend 1st/2nd June, at the world-famous Nurburgring in Germany.Provisional 2013 International GT OpenGTS Class Standings (after Rd4):3rd Michael Lyons/Matteo Beretta, 14ptsProvisional 2013 International GT Open Standings (after Rd4):=8th Michael Lyons/Matteo Beretta and Diederik Sijthoff, 25pts