Rising star Harry King bounced back from a tough opening race at Brands Hatch to battle to a fine second place finish as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB headed for the Kent circuit for round two of the season.

Eager to try and fight for a first win of the year, the Porsche GB Junior driver - and defending champion - put down a marker in Friday testing where he topped the times in his Team Parker Racing-run car, and he then became embroiled in a huge fight for pole in qualifying with former champion Dan Cammish.

Harry would top the times for much of the session but Cammish eventually grabbed pole by just 0.027s, leaving Harry to start race one from second on the grid.

The opening race would be a dramatic affair, with Harry maintaining second place at the start behind rival Cammish before making his move for the lead at Paddock Hill Bend on lap two. When Cammish closed the door, contact between the pair saw Cammish tipped into a spin, with Harry delayed enough to allow Kiern Jewiss through into the lead.

When Jewiss then went off at Graham Hill Bend on lap five, Harry moved into the lead of the race but was struggling with the front end of the car having picked up damage to the splitter.

A slight moment at Druids saw him run slightly wide and resulted in Lorcan Hanafin trying to go past up the inside, with contact between the pair putting Harry onto the kerbs; tipping his car into a spin.

Having made contact with the barrier, he was forced in to retire from the race and headed into race two hoping to make up lost ground from twelfth on the grid, having been handed a penalty for the contact with Cammish.

A storming opening lap saw him make up six places, including getting ahead of main rivals Cammish and Hanafin, and by the end of lap three, Harry was fighting for the podium spots.

A fine move on Lewis Plato saw him move into third spot and Harry then battled ahead of Jamie Orton to secure second, a place he held through to the flag to score vital points against his championship rivals.

Harry ends the weekend sitting in a share of fourth in the standings ahead of the next round at Oulton Park, with his racing programme seeing him now head for Austria for his latest outing in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

"We’ve had a bit of a mixed weekend and in the second race, I knew I had work to do from P12 if I wanted to go home with some silverware," he said. "I made some strong decisive overtakes to come through the field and also defended well to keep Dan [Cammish] behind me for a long while as well.

"I’m delighted with the result from where we started and it’s good way to end the weekend, although I know we should have had more from it. I know it was a mistake on my part in the opening race, but I knew we had the pace to come back in race two and the points we scored there were important, particularly as the main championship contenders finished behind.

"I’m looking forward to the Supercup next weekend at Red Bull Ring, where I’ve already had a win this season, and I’ll be hoping for a strong result there."