Spa Qualifying: Van der Merwe takes pole

The Carlin Motorsport ace set a time of 2m35.001secs, some 0.293 clear of Nelson Angelo Piquet, back on form after a lacklustre performance at the last round of the championship at Thruxton.

Carlin's Jamie Green and Fortec Motorsport's Will Power were the only other two drivers within one second of van der Merwe, followed by the non-point scoring PREMA Powerteam entry of F3 EuroSeries leader and Toyota F1 protege Ryan Briscoe.

Italian Alvaro Parente, newly installed at Carlin in the ex-Richard Antinucci car raced at Thruxton by Michael Keohane, was an aggressive eighth behind Hi-Tech's Eric Salignon after a last-minute engine change.

Several usual front-runners failed to make the most of the improving conditions on a crowded track, with Danny Watts (Hi-Tech) 13th and Thruxton race winner Robert Dahlgren a disappointed 22nd.

Adam Carroll, who has made a surprise move to replace the cash-strapped Will Davison at Alan Docking Racing was 15th, one place behind team-mate Joel Nelson, while Davison himself was 16th having succeeded Carroll at Menu Motorsport.

In the scholarship class, Indian Karun Chandhok set tenth fastest time to take pole by over a second from team-mate Steven Kane and Ernesto Viso.

Qualifying for race two takes place later this afternoon, with the first of this weekend's double-header at 1520 (BST).





Alan van der Merwe (Carlin Motorsport), 2m35.001s (100.279mph)
Nelson Angelo Piquet (Piquet Sports), 2m35.294s
Jamie Green (Carlin Motorsport), 2m35.419s
Will Power (Fortec Motorsport), 2m35.829s
Ronnie Bremer (Carlin Motorsport), 2m36.169s
Ryan Briscoe (PREMA Powerteam), 2m26.170s
Eric Salignon (Hi-Tech Racing), 2m36.263s
Alvaro Parente (Carlin Motorsport), 2m36.272s
Richard Antinucci (Promatecme), 2m36.338s
Karun Chandhok (T-Sport), 2m36.251s

*Scholarship class