Teenage racer Geri Nicosia enjoyed a strong start to the 2016 Ginetta Junior Championship over the weekend.

The 16-year-old, who is from Princes Risborough, began the race weekend in style as he produced an impressive drive to come in with the fourth fastest time in Friday’s test session.

Qualifying proved to be a frustrating experience for Nicosia though as he finished 11th before coming eighth and seventh in the two races at Brands Hatch.

Despite the solid showing, the youngster was far from satisfied with his performance and admitted he is hoping for better results during the remainder of the season.

He said: “It is a measure of how far we have come that I’m disappointed with eighth and seventh. But we have 23 more races to go and we have the pace to compete at the front.”

Nicosia will look to an excellent start to Saturday’s evening race as evidence of the ability he feels will allow him to challenge for the top positions in the championship battle.

He drove superbly through the first corner and immediately took two places to rise to ninth position before spending much of the season opener jostling for positions in the middle of the pack.

While he remained competitive throughout, Nicosia did not quite have the speed required to climb up the rankings and finished just over half a second shy of seventh place.

The JHR Developments driver saved his best performance of the weekend, however, for Sunday’s race, which was televised live on ITV4.

From eighth on the grid a typically fast start saw him climb to fifth and form part of an early breakaway group which would set the pace for much of the race.

Unfortunately for Nicosia a crash between two cars directly in front of him on lap 11 saw his car involved in a minor collision which scuppered his chances of catching the race leaders.

This collision saw Nicosia slip to seventh place, but he can nonetheless be pleased with a promising start to the season.