Oxfordshire's Alice Powell extended her lead at the top of the rankings following a first and second place at Silverstone over the weekend.

The result saw the Chipping Norton ace stretch her advantage to 26 points. On Saturday, Powell driver stormed to victory in a dramatic opener where her Dallara F305 survived a run-in with a bollard.

The roles were reversed the next day when she finished second behind Cliffe. Starting in third on the grid in the first race, Powell struck a bollard after Cliffe had knocked it over, but held on to take victory.

Powell said: “He (Cliffe) went over one of the sticks at Brooklands, that came off and I couldn’t avoid it. “I just went over it unfortunately and suddenly felt a vibration. ‘I thought oh no, please don’t be a puncture’.

“The whole lap I was just looking in my mirrors to see if the rear tyre were going to hold up. “Luckily, I got to the end, but it’s broken all the turning vanes at the front and two at the rear.

“I had no dash(board) as well, so I was having to guess revs and stuff on sounds.”

Powell got off to a flier in the next race, beating Cliffe off the line, but he responded well as he edged in to a lead which he never relinquished. Powell was pleased with her efforts over the weekend.

She said on Twitter: “A hard race (race two), really struggled with the car, big vibration from the start & struggled with oversteer. Increased lead in the champ tho!”

LATEST STANDINGS

1 A Powell 325pts, 2 T Cliffe 299, 3 A Craven 288, 4 L Hamilton-Smith 173, 5 D Karaskas 170.