Merhi Dominated Final FIA / British F3 Combined Race At Spa

After a very damp morning the track was beginning to dry out by the time the cars lined up on the grid. It was no contest on tyres – the only way to go was slick shod, and so when the lights went out on the starting gantry it was a pack of 28 all on dry weather tyres who set off for a 40 minute charge through the Belgian forests. Merhi made a stunning start and was leading by a cars’ length by the time they reached Eau Rouge while behind him there was much shuffling of the order. The trouble was that as several people has messed up their strategy in qualifying, the grid was more than a little odd, with some of the faster drivers a long way back in the pack. It was no surprise when various individuals went for it big time. Additionally, Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin), Scott Pye (Double R Racing) and Hywel Lloyd (Sino Vision Racing) all got docked a number of places for cutting the chicane in earlier races, so the whole lot were far more mixed up than is usual.
It was therefore probably to be expected when a bit of barging in mid-mob led to the first incident of the race, as Adderly Fong was forced into a spin, possibly by Hannes van Asseldonk (Van Amersfoort Racing), and then a corner later Lloyd was pushed into retirement after a class with Yann Cunha (T-Sport). Fong limped round to the pits, as did Cunha, and they both eventually rejoined the race. Another early pit visitor was Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam), who was also caught up in all the bumping and barging. Meanwhile, at the front, things were settling down as Merhi vanished into the distance, leaving Wittmann to wonder what he had to do to catch the Signature car. Behind him Marko Asmer (Double R Racing) was having a bit of a set to with Carlos Munoz (Signature) for 3rd, while Vanthoor was having his work cut out to hold off Buller, the latter now with the bit firmly between his teeth. Behind them the top ten was rounded out by Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam), Jack Harvey (Carlin), Lucas Foresti (Fortec Motorsport) and Pipo Derani (Double R Racing), while not that far back Nasr was already up to 13th. Shortly afterwards van Asseldonk limped into the pits and out of the race.
Ahead of them Harvey was showing strongly although he was also under investigation for not respecting the track limits, but it didn’t alter the fact that he was putting in a very strong performance to hold off his more experienced team mates, if not with ease then certainly with brio. At least Huertas wasn’t proving as much of a menace as he can be, largely because he’d got his hands full with Nasr, while Nasr was being spared Magnussen’s attentions because the Dane was now locked in a full scale scrap with Jaafar, a scrap that Munoz seemed to feel he should join, making a ill-advised overtaking attempt that led to him being punted off while the other two continued as they were. What he also managed to do on his way off was to collect Derani, an innocent bystander for once. Closer to the front things were going downhill for Asmer now, after Vanthoor snatched 3rd off him and he found himself having to deal with a very determined Buller who really wanted to move up the order, even though he was the leading British Series driver now. It wasn’t long before Buller was past and off in pursuit of Vanthoor, who he was intent on giving a very hard time to.