van der Merwe completes Spa double.

British Formula Three champion-elect Alan van der Merwe took another step towards securing the title by winning race two at Spa-Francorchamps to add to his earlier - if somewhat truncated - victory on Saturday evening.

Ten minutes before the start of the second race at Spa, the Ardennes clouds released their reserve tanks of rain - prompting rapid and frantic activity from the pit crews as cars set up for dry running were quickly changed to wet settings.

Dutchman Robert Doornbos, standing in for the injured Rob Austin at Menu Motorsport, sat on pole alongside series leader Alan van der Merwe, but it was the incomparably consistent South African who had the better start and overhauled Doornbos with ease to take the lead before the famous Eau Rouge corner.

The engine in van der Merwe's car had been changed overnight, but was clearly no less a powerful unit as he settled down to control the pace of the race from the
front - a position in which he is now clearly quite comfortable.

Doornbos then found that he couldn't hold on to second, allowing Frenchman Eric Salignon to move up to take the shadowing role to van der Merwe, and things slowly got worse for the Dutchman, as he also saw Jamie Green and Ryan Briscoe move ahead of him.

Green once again showed himself to be the best of the season-long challengers to van der Merwe and went on to take yet another podium finish with third place. The only other man to retain a chance of the crown heading into the weekend - Nelson Piquet Jr - had needed to pull out something special from his portfolio of talent but compounded the loss of his hopes on Saturday by languishing in seventh in race two. That allowed young English star Green to increase his lead over the Brazilian for second place in the championship, and Green remains the only driver able to fight his team-mate for the title.

van der Merwe's lead diminished towards the end of the race, but Salignon was never a serious threat, with the South African simply adjusting his speed to preserve his wet tyres on what was now a drying track and to ensure that he had enough in hand to hold his position to the end. The gap at the chequered flag was 1.423secs, allowing the Carlin driver to extend his advantage at the top of the table.

Euroseries leader Ryan Briscoe followed Green across the line to take fourth place, with the luckless Doornbos having to accept fifth as little reward for his well-judged pole on Saturday. Danny Watts was the other driver to increase the space between Green and Piquet, while Carlin's fourth - stand-in - driver, Alvaro Parente, took eighth. The Portuguese driver, Doornbos' team-mate in the Euroseries, impressed the team with his performance under difficult circumstances at Spa, and coped well with the changing conditions at a daunting track which was also new to him.

Robert Dahlgren, a race winner at Thruxton last time out, headed Brazilian sensation Joao Paulo de Oliveira to round out the top ten, ahead of Will Davison - who only made the weekend after a money scare that threatened to end his time with ADR - and Clivio Piccione.

There was bad news for Carlin's Ronnie Bremer, former pilot Richard Antinucci and new ADR driver Adam Carroll, however, who all retired from the race.

The Scholarship Class went to Ernesto Viso for the second time on the weekend, the Venezuelan putting a lacklustre Will Power between himself and title rival Karun Chandhok, who took fastest lap in the class. The third hopeful for the 'junior' crown, Steven Kane, finished a further three places back, behind Tor Graves and guest driver Katsuyuki Hiranaka.