Van der Merwe Does the Spa Double

31 August 2003

Alan van der Merwe completed a double victory at Spa-Francorchamps today (Sunday 31 August) to win the 20th round of the 2003 British F3 Championship gripped by AVON Tyres. Van der Merwe saw off the challenge of Eric Salignon to move ever closer to the 2003 championship title. Ernesto Viso also wrapped up a perfect weekend by scoring his second Scholarship class victory in style.

With a rain shower sweeping the Belgian track just before the start of the second British F3 race, all the teams had to make a frantic switch to treaded tyres. But that didn't unsettle van der Merwe at all, and he out-dragged polesitter Robert Doornbos (Menu F3 Motorsport) on the sprint away from the grid. Once ahead, van der Merwe (Carlin Motorsport) extended his lead as the track started to dry, and it was Salignon (Hitech Racing) who emerged as the big threat to the leader.

As the race developed, Salignon tigered his way through to second place and then pushed hard to reduce van der Merwe's lead. But van der Merwe was not about to lessen his grip on the weekend and kept a winning margin of a second and a half to the flag. "It's been a great weekend," said van der Merwe on the podium. "I could see Salignon catching and the conditions were tricky. I'm really pleased to win here at Spa!"

Salignon's drive was rewarded with the second step of the podium, while Jamie Green (Carlin Motorsport) fended off series guest Ryan Briscoe (Prema Powerteam) for third. Doornbos slipped to fifth in the difficult conditions, while Danny Watts completed a strong weekend for Hitech Racing by completing the top six.

Viso (P1 Motorsport) was again the master of the Scholarship class, having beaten Steven Kane (T Sport) to the first corner. Once in the clear, Viso extended his lead to win by more than six seconds as Karun Chandhok moved through to second when his team mate Kane lost out in the opening lap battles. "I knew we had the best car out there," said an elated Viso. "It was all about keeping calm in the conditions," he said, having moved very close to the championship lead.

See series calendar for British F3 Championship

Related Story 31.08.2003 - Van der Merwe Wins Shortened Spa F3 Race