Esp: Legris defies eight-year 'disadvantage'.

Briton Jonathan Legris stunned the Spanish F3 Championship field once again as he overcame any perceived disadvantage of running an eight-year old car to claim a brace of second-place finishes at the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

While the entire West-Tec operation excelled at the home of the Belgian Grand Prix, making the British operation the highest-scoring on a memorable and dramatic weekend of high quality racing, Legris stole the headlines as he won the Copa de Espana class in his venerable Dallara F300, and closed in on the 'overall' points lead as a result.

"Jonathan scored our best results to date, which was just amazing in the old F300," team principal Gavin Wills commented, "Unbelievably, he is now just one point off the outright championship lead, as well as being just one point off the Copa de Espana lead."

Relatively trouble-free practice sessions saw the FBMW graduate placed eighth and seventh respectively, while qualifying saw him raise the bar once again by recording a fine fifth place on the grid. Indeed, he had been third fastest until the dying moments of the session, when he was bumped back a couple of spots.

Undeterred, Legris was in the thick of the battle in race one, passing several cars, including the polesitter's newer and supposedly-quicker 2008 machine, to record a fine second placed finish, coming home less than a second behind winner Nicola de Marco, also in a 2008 chassis.

As the live TV coverage showed, time and again Legris would gain through the fearsome Eau Rouge sequence and slipstream past the car in front as the cars raced up the hill. Unsurprisingly, he also set fastest lap, a new lap record which would remain unbeaten in race two.

However, with the last few laps affected by persistent drizzle, which caused the cars to lose grip, the Briton was at a definite disadvantage to the newer cars, which generated much more downforce. As a result, hanging on to finish second, let alone challenge of the leader - which he did, causing de Marco to straight-line the Bus Stop on the last lap - was a superlative performance.

"This boy is incredible," exclaimed car manager Roger Parkes, "He is still learning the car and is only going to get quicker. To see him racing at the very front at this renowned drivers circuit showed the talent he has. I am sure that, if he had a newer car, he would just disappear into the distance!"

The result put Legris back into fifth on the reversed grid for race two but, in a replay of race one, he again passed several cars to finish second, just behind the winner, Yacaman, another to enjoy the use of an F308 model car.

"That was amazing," Legris admitted, "The guys have given me a great car, which is very responsive to drive. I thought I had a shot at the outright wins, but we ran out of laps in both races. Another couple of laps in each and I think I would have won!"

The Briton's performances did not go unnoticed by some experienced heads either, with GT Sport series organiser - and former world sportscar ace - Jesus Pareja also commenting on Legris' results.

"I studied his races on the TV, and he made no mistakes and was absolutely perfect," the Spaniard revealed, "He used the performance of his car superbly - maximising where it was best and holding on where it was at a disadvantage. He is incredible!"