Roberto Merhi takes double pole position for British F3 races at Spa

The track improved throughout a wet and foggy session and Merhi, who leads the FIA F3 International Trophy - of which the Spa event is a round - made the best of tough conditions to lead the way.

Early crashes for Fortec's Harry Tincknell and T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar turned the 30-minute session into a truncated 16-minute fight for pole.

After a brief stoppage to retrieve Idafar's car, Merhi topped the times for much of the remainder of the running in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes.

He eventually set a best time of 2m17.438s on his final flying lap to leave the rest of the field trailing by over a second.

His second best time of 2m19.228s was also good enough to give him the top starting spot for Friday afternoon's opening race.

Former British F3 champion Marko Asmer scored Double R Racing's best qualifying result of the season by going second fastest, ahead of Signature team-mates Marco Wittmann and Carlos Munoz.

Estonian ex-GP2 racer Asmer's second best time was only good enough for 18th place on the race one grid though, while Wittmann and Munoz will start fourth and fifth for race one on account of their second best efforts.

Fortec team-mates Will Buller and Lucas Foresti were in contention throughout the crucial second part of qualifying and rounded out the top six, making them the best-placed of the drivers registered for British F3 points. Their second best times were good enough to put them second and third on the grid for race one, with Foresti joining Merhi on the front row.

Raffaele Marciello (Prema), Pipo Derani (Double R), Laurens Vanthoor (Signature) and Hywel Lloyd (Sino Vision) completed the top 10 overall, but second best times mean Lloyd will start a season's best sixth for race one, ahead of Carlin's Jack Harvey, T-Sport's Bart Hylkema and Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar.

Runaway British championship leader Felipe Nasr delivered his worst qualifying result of the season with the 20th fastest time overall for Carlin. He wound up 10.816s adrift of pole, while his second best effort was only good enough for 10th on the race one grid.

Practice pacesetter Kevin Magnussen (Carlin) fared little better, going 16th overall and winding up 17th on the race one grid.

Race one grid:

Pos  Driver                Team            Car
 1.  Roberto Merhi         Prema           Dallara-Merc
 2.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec          Dallara-Merc
 3.  William Buller        Fortec          Dallara-Merc
 4.  Marco Wittmann        Signature       Dallara-VW
 5.  Carlos Munoz          Signature       Dallara-VW
 6.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc
 7.  Jack Harvey           Carlin          Dallara-VW
 8.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport         Dallara-VW
 9.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin          Dallara-VW
10.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin          Dallara-VW
11.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin          Dallara-VW
12.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport         Dallara-VW
13.  Scott Pye             Double R        Dallara-Merc
14.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema           Dallara-Merc
15.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Van Amersfoort  Dallara-VW
16.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc
17.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin          Dallara-VW
18.  Marko Asmer           Double R        Dallara-Merc
19.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec          Dallara-Merc
20.  Laurens Vanthoor      Signature       Dallara-VW
21.  Daniel Abt            Signature       Dallara-VW
22.  Pipo Derani           Double R        Dallara-Merc
23.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema           Dallara-Merc
24.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech          Dallara-Mugen
25.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin          Dallara-VW
26.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech          Dallara-VW
27.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport         Dallara-VW
28.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec          Dallara-Merc

Race three grid:

Pos  Driver                Team            Car            Time       Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi         Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m17.438s
 2.  Marko Asmer           Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m18.502s  + 1.064s
 3.  Marco Wittmann        Signature       Dallara-VW     2m18.800s  + 1.362s
 4.  Carlos Munoz          Signature       Dallara-VW     2m19.289s  + 1.851s
 5.  William Buller        Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m19.692s  + 2.254s
 6.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m19.993s  + 2.555s
 7.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m20.249s  + 2.811s
 8.  Pipo Derani           Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m21.253s  + 3.815s
 9.  Laurens Vanthoor      Signature       Dallara-VW     2m21.398s  + 3.960s
10.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc   2m22.582s  + 5.144s
11.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m22.741s  + 5.303s
12.  Jack Harvey           Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m25.510s  + 8.072s
13.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc   2m26.398s  + 8.960s
14.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m26.889s  + 9.451s
15.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m27.133s  + 9.695s
16.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m27.315s  + 9.877s
17.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m27.347s  + 9.909s
18.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Van Amersfoort  Dallara-VW     2m27.517s  + 10.079s
19.  Scott Pye             Double R        Dallara-Merc   2m27.767s  + 10.329s
20.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m28.254s  + 10.816s
21.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin          Dallara-VW     2m28.942s  + 11.504s
22.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema           Dallara-Merc   2m29.496s  + 12.058s
23.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m29.578s  + 12.140s
24.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech          Dallara-Mugen  2m30.009s  + 12.571s
25.  Daniel Abt            Signature       Dallara-VW     2m30.229s  + 12.791s
26.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech          Dallara-VW     2m33.004s  + 15.566s
27.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport         Dallara-VW     2m36.104s  + 18.666s
28.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec          Dallara-Merc   2m38.252s  + 20.814s

Race one grid - Second-fastest qualifying times
Race two grid - Race one results with top eight reversed
Race three grid - Fastest qualifying times