CREWE'S Bentley Motors is sponsoring the award for the Best Mechanical Engineering Student in a national competition for the second year running.

Bentley's Dr Ulrich Eichhorn presented the award - which carries £15,000-worth of sponsorship - to Chris Lamming at the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year Awards in London last week.

Chris, aged 30, from Bath, said: "I'm really proud to have contributed to the growth of knowledge in engineering and pleased that I've been able to raise the profile of University of Bath at the same time."

His entry was one of just three short-listed by Bentley's judges, who only made their final decision just hours before the ceremony.

Dr Eichhorn praised the extremely high standard of all the short-listed entries: "Finding a winner from these three finalists was immensely difficult, such was the quality of their work and level of insight displayed in their papers.

"However, Chris's entry was truly exceptional and we were proud to present him with the award - we're confident he has a great future ahead of him in engineering."

Bentley's factory at Pym's Lane upholds a long tradition of engineering excellence and currently employs more than 600 top engineers.