Alice Powell said she was determined to ‘keep at it’ after finishing on the podium in the second race in the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series at Rockingham Motor Speedway.

The 21-year-old, from Sar-sden, near Chipping Norton, who clinched a late deal to join the Carlin team, lined up in the second F308-VW challenger.

However, she missed qualifying for Sunday’s opening race, as hours earlier she had been taking part in trials for the GB Skeleton bobsleigh team in Loughborough.

That meant she started from the back of the seven-car grid for the opening F3 race.

Despite that, she forced her way up the field and at one stage was third, before she had to settle for fifth place.

The race was won by Sam MacLeod (Fortec), who enjoy-ed a lights-to-flag victory.

“I made a good start and it showed when I was running in the top three,” said Powell.

“We couldn’t keep up with the newer cars, unfortunately. I pushed as hard as I could. We’ve got a bit to do and we’ll keep at it.

“Outside of the media day at Donington, I’ve not driven in the car since November.

“It just adds to the challenges of my busy weekend. I just got here at the last minute (from the Team GB trial).

“It’s been frantic and my legs are like jelly, to be honest!”

She followed that up by taking third place in race two on Monday morning, McLeod taking the chequered flag to complete a double ahead of Martin Cao.

Powell failed to finish in the final race due to problems with the car’s exhaust having been pushing for third place, before flying off to Malaysia to take part in the Formula Renault Asia Series.

She said on her Twitter account: “Pressuring P3 when exhaust broke:-( However, it’s been a gr8 experience & I’ll be pushing to be at Silverstone (next rounds are May 24-25). Big thanks to @CarlinRacing.”

Now she is waiting to hear back from the GB skeleton team.

She Tweeted: “Really enjoyed the testing with @Brit-ishSkeleton at #Loughbor-ough! I pushed 100%, fingers crossed!”