William Buller enjoyed a strong start to his Cooper Tires British F3 International Series season with a double pole and three top seven finishes in the opening three races of the year at Monza (16/17 April).After a quiet pre-season testing programme, the MSA Team UK driver from Scarva showed the true pace of his Fortec Motorsport team at the famous Italian circuit as he placed his Dallara-Mercedes at the front of the field for both the first and third races of the weekend.Unfortunately, the decision to bring forward the start of race one wasn’t communicated to the Fortec team, which meant Will was unable to leave the pits in time to take his place at the head of the grid and had to start from the pitlane.Despite that, Will made the most of the overtaking opportunities available at the home of the Italian Grand Prix to storm his way through the field to finish just off the podium in fourth place.Starting third for race two thanks to the reverse grid draw employed in the series, Will fought his way up to second before allowing Felipe Nasr through in the hope of the pair working together to haul in leader Rupert Svendsen-Cook. Settling for third at the finish, Will posted the fastest lap of the race en-route to his first podium of the season.From pole again in race three, Will was hopeful of challenging for victory before being forced wide through Curve Grande onto the grass by Jazeman Jaafar. Despite that causing damage to his Dallara-Mercedes and dropping him down outside the top ten, Will fought his way back up to fourth at the chequered flag only for a post-race penalty for cutting a chicane – which was handed out despite no advantage being gained - dropping him back to seventh.Despite that, the three strong performances from the youngster mean he will now return to the UK for the second round of the season at Oulton Park next weekend sitting fourth in the championship standings.“We took a big step forwards from testing and our true potential is now being shown,” he said. “The whole Fortec team has worked hard and it showed we were right to focus on our own work in testing and not worry about what others were doing. I have to say a massive thanks to all of the team for the work they have done to make sure we were in a strong position throughout the weekend.“Getting a double pole was mega but things just didn’t go our way in the races. The first race started early but the team wasn’t informed and I had to start from the pitlane, but it was a great race through the pack to finish in fourth and I was happy with that. In race two, I managed to finish third and also got the fastest lap, so it was good to get onto the podium.“At the start of race three I was battling hard with Jaafar but he forced me onto the grass through Curve Grande and I dropped down the order. I got back up to fourth but the contact on lap one had damaged my car and I was locking up into the chicanes and ran wide three times, which meant I got a penalty even though I didn’t gain any advantage.“Seventh still isn’t a bad result and we have shown ourselves to be one of the pacesetters all weekend. We need to keep the momentum going when we get to Oulton Park next weekend.”