ALEX Lynn felt his fourth-place finish in the GP2 Series feature race at Sepang in Malaysia represented "a welcome upturn in form" for him and his DAMS Racing team.

It has been a testing summer for the 23-year-old racing driver from Dunmow, who had started the year among the favourites for the title, as he has struggled to find the pace he has needed from his DAMS car to battle at the front of the GP2 pack.

However, Lynn, who is also development driver with the Williams Martini Racing Formula One team, was pleased to be at the top end in Malaysia, especially after a poor first day in free practice when he was only tenth.

Lynn and the DAMS team engineers managed to make changes in time for qualifying and he placed his car sixth on the grid, before some smart tactics and strong pace allowed him to move up into the top four at the chequered flag after a tight battle with MP Motorsports' Oliver Rowland.

He said: "I had a really good race to finish fourth, which is a welcome upturn in form for us bearing in mind the difficult summer the DAMS team have had.

"It was even more of a relief bearing in mind the difficult start we had to the weekend.

"I had quite a reasonable first lap to the feature race and got up to fifth as everyone battled for position.

"The stop (to change tyres) went well and I was fifth by the time everyone had been in.

"From that point on I got into a really nice scrap with my old Formula Renault UK team-mate Oliver Rowland.

"We’ve got to know each other’s characteristics pretty well over the years and we had four or five laps with places constantly changing before I got the position.

"It was a good fight and good fun and from where we are at the moment in terms of pace, it was nice to finish fourth."

However, Lynn admitted that he was mystified that the car's pace dropped away in the following day's sprint race on different tyres as he could only finish in 12th place.

The final round of the GP2 Series is in Abu Dhabi next month, but before that, Lynn is set to make his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji on October 16, where he will be racing a Manor ORECA in LMP2 in a team with former F1 star Shinji Nakano and Tor Graves.

"It’s a new challenge for me and something I’m very excited about," added Lynn.