van der Merwe piles up points.

Carlin Motorsport driver Alan van der Merwe showed great form all through the Brands Hatch weekend to net two fourth place finishes and 20 points toward his championship assault.

The South African won the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 2001, taking home the prestigious world champion title, and once again showed form around the
short 1.2mile Indy circuit during Friday's testing session, posting fifth quickest time, but only four-tenths behind the frontrunners.

The track was dry for both of Saturday's twenty minute qualifying sessions, and van der Merwe had a good set up after a good test session on Friday. As a result, he drove a very strong first session, placing his Dallara-Mugen on the second row of the grid as, with less than a second splitting the entire championship class, a gust of wind could make all the difference from first to fifteenth. He then managed another good session second time around, and placed his Carlin Motorsport Dallara on the grid in seventh place for round 16.

The South African stood his ground for the first race of the weekend, keeping his nose clean after a good start and racing home to finish fourth, earning a valuable ten championship points. The later race then gave him chance to improve his position during the 22 laps to greet the chequered flag again in fourth, bagging ten points toward his total standing.

Having earned more points than any other driver bar one during the last two Formula Three events, van der Merwe is now eighth in the championship and stands as the second placed rookie of the year.

He will be racing with Carlin Motorsport in the British Grand Prix support race this coming weekend [6-7 July] at Silverstone.