HAVING endured a performance dip in his last few outings, Jamaica’s karting sensation Alex Powell signalled a return to form with a third-place finish in round two of the FIA Karting European Championships in Zuera, Spain on Sunday.

The American-born driver, who crashed out of contention on the first lap in round one action in Portimao, Portugal, recovered stronger on this occasion as he continues to find his footing in the more competitive OK category.

After two days of heats and qualifiers, Powell started Sunday’s final in seventh position, gradually worked his way through traffic to take third position on the 14th lap, and held firm to the end of the 18-lap race.

Great Britain’s Joe Turney topped the 36-driver field ahead of Frenchman Enzo Deligny.

For Powell, the performance represents a significant improvement following a series of listless showings since his second-place finish in the WSK Super Master Series in February.

In fact, his best performance prior to this was a fifth-place finish in Champions of the Future action just over a week ago.

“It’s always a good feeling when you make the podium — and making the podium for the first time at the FIA European Karting Championship this season is definitely a booster for me and the team,” Powell told the Jamaica Observer just before boarding a flight back to his base in Italy.

“The first round was a bit difficult so I knew I had to execute well over the next few rounds because with the FIA you are allowed to drop one whole round so in Portimau I didn’t gain any points, which meant I had to do my best this round — and I did that,” he added.

Buoyed by the podium performance, the 14-year-old is hoping to continue progressing for the remainder of the season, with the main focus being to secure or even better a top five finish in the overall European Championships.

He currently occupies eighth position in the standings on 20 points, with two rounds to come.

“We started off really strong — a podium [finish] in the second race of the season — and then from then we had one or two bad races. But we started our progress from the Champions of the Future run, which was definitely a big improvement from what happened a few weeks before, so today’s [Sunday’s] performance was basically an extension of that,” said Powell.

“Being third is definitely a positive way to start so hopefully I can be on the podium or at least stay in the top five for the rest of the rounds. That’s definitely going to be most important, just staying consistent. So, I am hopeful that this is the beginning of a podium streak for the remainder of the season,” he noted.

For now though, the Kart Republic Motorsport representative will have a three-week break to bask in his accomplishment and, by extension, intensify preparation for what is to come.

Champions of the Future will be first up from May 19-22 in Sweden, followed by the third round about two weeks later and the more prestigious World Championships later this year.

“I just want to put this result behind me. Yes, it was good, but we just have to take the positives and negatives to build and learn from and then start working even harder — because the next few rounds of both events are going to be crucial,” said Powell, who is cousin to former 100-metre record holder Asafa Powell.

“That’s why it was so important to get a good finish here [in Spain], and if we can keep improving it would be really good.

“So not much celebration, but more preparation. These few days are going to be used to continue working hard to prepare physically and mentally to ensure I am in the best shape possible so that I can hopefully come out with the best-possible results,” the Mercedes-AMG F1 protege ended.