BF3

van der Merwe sweeps pole positions at Snetterton

Alan van der Merwe secured a brace of pole positions at Snetterton for rounds three and four of the British Formula Three Championship. He took pole position in the first qualifying session earlier in the day and then repeated the feat in the ...

Edited: Apr 21, 2003, 3:25 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Alan van der Merwe secured a brace of pole positions at Snetterton for rounds three and four of the British Formula Three Championship. He took pole position in the first qualifying session earlier in the day and then repeated the feat in the afternoon to secure pole position for race two.

Alan van der Merwe.

Photo by Mark Gledhill.

The early pace was set by Jamie Green who was flying in his opening laps. Green then came under pressure from Rob Austin and Danny Watts who were also lapping in the low 1m 02s.

Van der Merwe then pulled out a stunning run of four consecutive laps under 1m 02s, the second of which was his fastest of the day and the third was just 0.02 second slower.

Nelson Piquet Jr responded with a late fast lap to again line up in second place, this time just 0.1 second behind van der Merwe. In fact the session was highly-competitive as 17 cars qualified within one second.

Jamie Green survived a huge crash between the first two corners of the circuit near the end of the session. The Carlin driver, who had just set his fastest lap, lost control and spun off the track at the exit of Riches Corner. The car then became airborne and flipped over before landing on its rear end.

The driver was able to climb out of the car unaided but was taken to hospital in an ambulance for precautionary checks. The car sustained substantial damage to its rear end and lost its rear wing and right-rear tyre, but despite this the Carlin mechanics are confident that they can repair the car before the first race tomorrow.

The session was red-flagged as a result of the accident so Green qualified in third place.

Round three of the championship will take place at 11:10am on Sunday 20th April and round four will take place shortly afterwards at 2.30pm.

Van der Merwe gets round three pole at Snetterton

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article BUSCH: Fontana: Chris Bingham joins Jay Robinson Racing

Next article IRL: Rookie drivers ready for Indy 500 orientation

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

19 min

LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates

Kyle Larson wins 2026 NASCAR Cup championship with Stage 1 clinch at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

24 min

Kyle Larson wins 2026 NASCAR Cup championship with Stage 1 clinch at Homestead

Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

51 min

Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win

Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc summoned to stewards after F1 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc summoned to stewards after F1 Brazilian GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts