King retains top ten position after weekend at German circuit which included frustrating time penalty

King travelled to Germany for the resumption of the fiercely-contested championship buoyed by a strong performance at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, where he had sealed a top five finish on his blue riband F3 Masters debut .

Despite being new to the Norisring, King made no errors during practice, as he lapped sixth-quickest out of the 28 high-calibre contenders - less than a tenth of a second adrift of the benchmark.

But a wrong turn on set-up direction ahead of qualifying saw him slip to 12th on the grid for race one and 11th for the following two encounters.

That practically the entire field was blanketed by less than a second served to compound the situation and amongst the Carlin quintet, only his team-mate Harry Tincknell fared better.

From there King raced well, taking the chequered flag eighth in the opener and ninth in races two and three around a circuit at which overtaking is invariably at a premium – a fact that frustrated his efforts to advance further given that he outpaced four of the drivers who finished ahead of him in the second outing and posted the fifth-quickest lap outright in the finale.

King had further frustration when was named as one of 12 competitors to receive a retrospective time penalty in race one – demoting him to 17th place.

One thing that owes nothing to luck is the 19-year-old’s eighth spot in the title standings midway through his maiden campaign of F3 action – a position he has comfortably retained as he looks ahead to the next round at the Nürburgring.