WORCESTER race star Richard Hay scored his first podium placing of the season in the Autosport Caterham Eurocup.

Hay finished runner-up in the eighth round of the championship at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

Hay's progress through the field from the fourth row of the grid was smooth and steady, the Hyperion Motorsport man rising to third and feeling confident enough on his last lap to attempt to drive around the outside of leaders Mark Humphrey and Clive Richards at the Tarzan hairpin.

It almost paid off. "I thought I was going to get both Clive and Mark, but it didn't quite work out," said Hay.

Sandwiching Humphrey and Richards, Hay then missed a gear. Humphrey crossed the line 0.039 seconds in front of Hay to take his maiden Eurocup win for the Luffield Racing team.

Hay also contested the seventh round of the championship, placing eighth. He holds ninth place overall in the championship.

With only two races remaining -- both at Dijon in France in September -- Gloucestershire's Nelson Rowe leads the championship by nine points from West Sussex driver Richards.