Roberto Merhi dominates British Formula 3 race three at Spa

In similar fashion to his race one triumph, the Spaniard converted pole position into an immediate lead, before drawing inexorably away from the field.

The Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes driver pulled away at over a second a lap to beat Euro Series and FIA F3 International Trophy rival Marco Wittmann (Signature) by just under 24 seconds after 17 laps of the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.

The German was chased home by top British runner Will Buller. The Fortec driver started fifth and lost out to Signature's Laurens Vanthoor initially, but gained a place back when the Belgian's team-mate Carlos Munoz spun.

Buller then fought back impressively to overhaul Double R's Marko Asmer and Vanthoor to fill the overall podium.

Home hero Vanthoor tracked Buller home in fourth, while front row starter Asmer eventually wound up sixth after being further demoted by Merhi's Prema team-mate Raffaele Marciello.

Behind the Italian F3 racer, British F3 championship leader Felipe Nasr won a thrilling five-car battle for seventh.

Carlin team-mate Jack Harvey held the place early on, but Nasr fought his way up from 18th on the grid and swapped places with the Racing Steps Foundation-backed rookie, before finally getting the better of him on the penultimate lap.

Kevin Magnussen (up from 15th on the grid) swept around the outside of Harvey at the same moment on the approach to Les Combes and the Briton lost a further place to team-mate Carlos Huertas on the final lap.

Fortec's Lucas Foresti had challenged Harvey for seventh in the early stages, but trailed home 11th after getting jumped by Nasr, Magnussen (who is under investigation by officials for corner-cutting) and Huertas in the second half of the race.

Results - 17 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team            Car               Time/Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi         Prema           Dallara-Merc    38m06.645s
 2.  Marco Wittmann        Signature       Dallara-VW       + 23.298s
 3.  Will Buller           Fortec          Dallara-Merc     + 25.355s
 4.  Laurens Vanthoor      Signature       Dallara-VW       + 27.203s
 5.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema           Dallara-Merc     + 28.451s
 6.  Marko Asmer           Double R        Dallara-Merc     + 32.708s
 7.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 34.110s
 8.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 35.399s
 9.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 36.663s
10.  Jack Harvey           Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 38.405s
11.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec          Dallara-Merc     + 38.881s
12.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 39.279s
13.  Daniel Abt            Signature       Dallara-VW       + 47.520s
14.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin          Dallara-VW       + 50.638s
15.  Scott Pye             Double R        Dallara-Merc     + 53.164s
16.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech          Dallara-VW       + 57.237s
17.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec          Dallara-Merc   + 1m02.012s
18.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport         Dallara-VW     + 1m11.807s
19.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec          Dallara-Merc   + 1m12.811s
20.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport         Dallara-VW     + 1m23.129s
21.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport         Dallara-VW     + 1m26.350s
22.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech          Dallara-Mugen  + 1m42.373s
23.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc       + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Carlos Munoz          Signature       Dallara-VW         10 laps
     Daniel Juncadella     Prema           Dallara-Merc        6 laps
     Pipo Derani           Double R        Dallara-Merc        5 laps
     Hannes van Asseldonk  Van Amersfoort  Dallara-VW           1 lap
     Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision     Dallara-Merc        0 laps