Lewis Hamilton continued his domination of the F3 Euroseries by taking his fifth win of the year at the head of another ASM 1-2 in the first of two races supporting the Monaco Grand Prix.
The McLaren-Mercedes protégé made a strong start from pole position and was never headed in the 18-lap encounter, eventually crossing the line 1.777secs ahead of team-mate
Adrian Sutil. Once in front, the Briton managed a controlled race as the principality lived up to its reputation as a tough place to pass. As a result, much of the grid held station from start to finish, with Loïc Duval taking his Signature-Plus Dallara-Opel to third place, albeit a massive 12.5secs adrift of the ASM duo.
“It’s just fantastic to win here, something very special," Hamilton admitted, "Adrian was extremely fast and it was really difficult to keep him behind. I had to work really hard to be the first to take the chequered flag.”
Like most of his rivals, Sutil admitted that finding a way past the car in front was tough, and he had other things on his mind.
"To complete 18 laps on a street circuit, you have to be far more focused than in a race at a regular track," the German explained, "During the course of the race, I got along better and better as I gained additional experience, but I couldn't pass Lewis.”
Hamilton's progress was halted on lap seven, when the safety car came out to cover the reclamation of Thomas Holzer's car, which had skidded into the barriers exiting the Swimming Pool chicane. After two laps of trundling around, Hamilton jumped back into his lead at the restart, and controlled the field to take his fifth win of 2005.
Duval had Signature-Plus team-mate James Rossiter for company for much of the race, the Briton having vaulted past Franck Perera, who went on to take fifth for Prema Powerteam.
