Spanish Ace Merhi Joins Double R For British F3 At Spa‏

Highly rated aspiring FIA Formula One World Championship racer Roberto Merhi has this morning, Tuesday, 22nd July, been officially confirmed as part of the Double R Racing line-up for this coming weekend’s Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship event at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.Signing an eleventh hour deal with Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt’s Woking-based squad to join Double R regulars Camren Kaminsky and Andy Chang, the Spanish 23-year-old’s participation in the fourth race meeting of the British F3 season will qualify him for November’s Macau Grand Prix.Piloting a Mercedes-powered Dallara F312, a car he will only get behind the wheel of on Thursday during free practice, Merhi makes a welcome return to the ranks of F3 for the first time since 2011 when he won the then Formula 3 Euro Series title – now FIA Formula 3 European Championship.After a couple of seasons in the DTM touring car series as part of the Mercedes Benz Junior Team, Merhi returned to single-seaters this year in F1 feeder category Formula Renault 3.5 Series where he is already a double race winner and currently placed second in the championship standings.“I’ve known Roberto for a while now, we’ve tried to get him to do Macau with us for some time but it never quite happened”, said Hieatt, “We spoke about Macau for this year and he said he’d love to do it, so racing at Spa this weekend in British F3 will qualify him for it – I’m absolutely delighted to have Roberto as part of the team this weekend and, of course, hopefully for Macau later in the year.“His World Series [Formula Renault 3.5] campaign is going good but there’s a two month break in that now, he wants to stay sharp in the meantime and so Spa is a good fit all round. He loves Spa, loves F3 and he’s a Mercedes driver so it ticks all the boxes. He’s going to set a good base line for Camren and Andy which is fantastic for them. We really are thrilled to be working with Roberto.”Beginning the 2014 season in Formula Renault 3.5 with a fantastic second place finish at Monza on his category debut, the Castellon born driver returned to the podium at Moscow Raceway during round nine where he claimed a memorable maiden FR 3.5 victory.Adding another runner-up spot and his second win at the Nurburgring during the most recent event earlier this month, Merhi has gone into the championship’s summer break second in the standings and on a real high with six races remaining.Free practice for rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the Cooper Tires British F3 Championship will take place at Spa on Thursday, 24th July. Qualifying and the opening two races will follow on Friday, 25th July, at 09.05 (local time), 12.45 (local time) and 17.30 (local time) respectively. Round 12 is scheduled to get underway at 09.45 (local time) on Saturday, 26th July.Provisional 2014 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship Standings (after Rd9):4th Andy Chang, 87pts; 5th Camren Kaminsky, 72pts

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