Bart Hylkema continued his great progress in the headline class of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend, a season-best qualifying effort in tricky, damp conditions and fantastic race pace coming as a real boost for the Dutch driver.Running in support of the Total Spa 24 Hours endurance race, the F3 encounters took place a day earlier than would normally be the case on Friday, 29th July, and Saturday, 30th July, and the addition of drivers from the FIA Formula 3 International Trophy meant the grid increased to a total of 28 cars.Making a good start in the opening free practice session on Thursday, 28th July, torrential rain ensured there was no point risking any significant time on track in the second outing so the 21-year-old from The Netherlands instead focused on qualifying where the weather again played a factor.Running with treaded tyres throughout, Bart delivered a strong performance and even though slick rubber became the optimum choice during the latter stages he still managed to set the 14th best time overall and the eighth quickest lap of the British F3 competitors.As if that weren't encouraging enough, his second best lap time was good for eighth on the grid of the weekend's opening race, a fifth quickest in the British F3 ranks - easily his best qualifying run since debuting in the International Class of the UK championship two weeks ago.Beginning round 19 from the fourth row overall, for the second event in succession the T-Sport driver was the victim of terrible misfortune after contact at the end of lap one led to broken rear suspension and an immediate retirement.Enjoying a good opening lap, Bart was on course for a very strong overall top 10 challenge but into the final chicane International Trophy driver Daniel Abt tagged the rear of the Dutchman's Dallara-Volkswagen, causing a lot of damage. Resulting in a back-of-the-grid start for round 20, Bart made good progress in the early laps and was up into 24th place overall on lap three. Momentarily slipping down a position on the following tour, he climbed into 23rd on lap five and remained there to the flag three laps later after choosing to adopt a cautious approach in the knowledge championship points would be impossible.In terms of the British F3 competitors he was 15th which wasn't a bad result at all considering his battle through the order. Post-race though, Jazeman Jaafar was excluded and so Bart was promoted a further position.Saturday's 21st round started in very difficult conditions due to rain prior to the beginning but it dried throughout meaning slick tyres were the only option. Off-line, damp patches made passing extremely tough but Bart was able to battle into 12th place in the British order, 18th position overall."I'm happy with the performance and pace we showed this weekend, we did learn a lot and I'm satisfied with the progress we're making", he said, "We worked on set-up in the first practice but the weather was very bad in the second session, on the straights you were just aquaplaning.""Qualifying was great for us even though we weren't on the right tyres at the end, which was a very close call to make. We did a really good job and quite maximised the conditions."Bart added: "Starting from a good grid slot in the first race, I had really high hopes but it all went wrong at the last corner. I saw (Daniel) Abt behind me so I braked on the inside as normal, went through the turn and then felt a big hit to the rear tyre which broke the suspension and meant a really abrupt end. I was disappointed with that as we had a chance for our best race yet."Therefore, we started last for the second race and knew we wouldn't very easily gain points so I took things a bit easier but our pace was good. In race three the conditions were very challenging and it was tough to pass as it was wet off-line. We had a bit less top speed in that race so it was difficult but our performance was good. Overall I'm satisfied with the pace and progress this weekend."Spa-Francorchamps is the final European venue on the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series calendar - the championship now takes a five week break from action before resuming in the UK at Rockingham in Northamptonshire on 3rd/4th September.Click here for the Bart Hylkema web site - designed and built by Racecar