An absolutely thrilling race saw Alex Lynn claim a top-five finish in front of his home fans in the GP2 Series feature race at a sun-drenched Silverstone.

The first GP2 race of the British Grand Prix weekend began in searing heat with a track temperature of 42 degrees at the start, but Lynn knew he had a lot of work to do to seal a good points haul.

Just as he has in several of the other races this season, the 21-year-old from Dunmow near Braintree had to make good progress through the field.

Lynn started the race sitting down the grid in 12th spot after another disappointing qualifying session in his DAMS Racing car so realised that a good start would be vital.

He got that and was able to make his way up to ninth, where he ran behind Raffaele Marciello of the Trident Racing team until the drivers started making their obligatory pitstops.

Lynn opted to come in on lap 21 of the 29 and the DAMS team did a great job in getting him back out so he would be able to battle for a top position on the quicker medium compound tyres at the end of the race.

Lynn had said before the event that he knew his car had good race pace and put in fastest lap in pursuit of his DAMS team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Gasly was being held up by Hillmer Motorsport’s Nick Yelloly and that allowed Lynn to close the gap on his team-mate and get on to the tail of the Frenchman.

It was a position that he held until the chequered flag but the DAMS pair had a thrilling last couple of laps.

Firstly, they both made it past Yelloly as the DAMS cars proved to have great pace at the end of the race and they were quickly on the trail of Racing Engineering’s Jordan King.

With King doing a great job of defending his position, Lynn and Gasly fought hard between them and almost touched wheels as they battled at the Becketts corner.

Gasly stayed ahead, though, and he eventually got past King with two laps to go, with Lynn soon following him in making his move into Copse corner.

That put the Essex driver up into fifth in the standings and with Gasly able to pull out a gap to maintain his track position of fourth, Lynn had to be content with fifth spot at the end.