van der Merwe completes Snetterton double.

Carlin Motorsport's Alan van der Merwe dominated proceedings in rounds three and four of the 2003 British F3 Championship at Snetterton, controlling both of the incident-packed races from the front of the field.

Over a third of the racing laps of the two races were run behind the safety car as numerous competitors were involved in incidents that left cars strewn over all parts of the Norfolk circuit. In the third round, two different Scholarship class racers were eliminated early on, while, in the later race, no fewer than five cars were ruled out in the opening two corners.

Through it all, however, came van der Merwe to take Carlin's first wins at the venue, with the team enjoying further podium success courtesy of Ronnie Bremer and Jamie Green.

The key to the 22-year old's third round victory was a series of good restarts after the double safety car intervention.

"[Nelsinho] Piquet must have been concentrating more on the people behind him," the South African reckoned, "I was a bit concerned that no-one was bunching up behind the safety car, so I just did my own thing."

van der Merwe got away well at the green light with Piquet Jr in his shadow. A moment on the fourth lap at Riches, when he was forced onto the marbles by a slower car emerging from the pit-lane, allowed the Brazilian to close up on the Carlin driver, but van der Merwe quickly re-asserted his authority and remained calm through two length safety periods to claim a well-deserved win.

Ronnie Bremer was third for Carlin and in Piquet's wheel tracks at the end, but the star of the show was arguably rookie Danny Watts, who worked through to fourth.

"The car was strong - we're making massive progress," the reigning FRenault champion claimed, "I had some good battles with Bremer and [Jamie] Green, so we're going in the right direction.

The infield at Riches became a car park for damaged Dallaras early on in race two, with Scott Speed, Robert Dahlgren and Will Davison coming to grief. At Sear, the next corner, the Sweeney Racing Lola of Adam Carroll and Ernani Judice's Promatecme car came together, with Carroll coming off worst and Bremer also being sidelined.

Despite the resultant safety car period, van der Merwe continued his dominance, pulling away from a tyre-troubled Green at the restart. Rob Austin took third away from Piquet at Sear mid-race, but felt he could have done more.

"I was quicker than Green," the Menu Motorsport man said, "If he wasn't there, I could have run with van der Merwe, but he was and he backed me into Piquet."

Scholarship pacesetter Ernesto Viso recovered from his Donington dramas to record his first points of the season with race one victory for Sweeney Racing.

"It came by itself," he said. "[Christian] England crashed in front of me, but I was sure that, even without that, I could have got him."

Karun Chandhok picked up second for T-Sport while, later in the day, Promatecme's England was leading the class only to see the other T-Sport runner, Steven Kane, make good progress and win round four.

"I got on well and pushed myself up behind Christian," Kane commented, "I knew I really had to put him under pressure - I did, and he went off!"

Viso came through to take second place in the second race.