KEVIN Magnussen earned Renault’s first points of the Formula 1 season with a seventh-place finish at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.

The Dane climbed through the field after qualifying in 17th to deliver a boost to the Enstone-based outfit.

He said: “It feels really good to get these points for the team as I know how hard everyone’s been working this season.”

Teammate Jolyon Palmer finished 13th, as Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg clinched a fourth win in a row, with teammate Lewis Hamilton finishing second.

l Thomas Maxwell claimed a hat-trick of ninth-placed finishes Chipping Norton’s SWR team in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship.

Danish teammate Jan Jonck’s best finish was tenth in the second race at Rockingham, where Eugene Denyssen’s highest place was 15th in the same race.

Blancpain GT Series racer Sean Walkinshaw makes a welcome return to track action on British soil this weekend, when he drives in the second round of the all-action Blancpain Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch

Walkinshaw is returning to the scene of his maiden Blancpain podium finish, having come third in the qualification race during the corresponding fixture last year

The NISMO driver is looking forward to being back at the Kent venue in his first season with the Nissan GT Academy.

The 22-year-old comes into the meeting fresh from an outstanding drive in the curtain-raiser to the sister Blancpain Endurance Cup at Monza in Italy, in his Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.