Britain's
Lewis Hamilton has triumphed in Europe's most prestigious F3 race today [Sunday] at Zandvoort.
In front of a crowd of 40,000, Hamilton took the 'Marlboro Masters of Formula 3' title in superior style and at the end of the 25 lap race crossed the line 6.477 seconds up on his ASM F3 team-mate,
Adrian Sutil.
From pole Hamilton took the lead right away and soon succeeded in opening a gap on his rivals.
Over the course of the race, he continuously increased this gap and when he took the chequered flag he had a comfortable margin over his team-mate.
"This was a perfect weekend for me," he said at the finish.
"My win may have looked easy - but it wasn't. Following my good start I succeeded in opening a gap on Adrian, and then I focused on keeping the gap on a constant level to save my tyres."
Sutil meanwhile had to fight hard, during the final laps, to defend his second place. Lucas di Grassi and Paul di Resta succeeded in closing in on the German but didn't find a way to pass him. At the end of the day, Sutil crossed the line just 0.8 seconds ahead of di Grassi.
"I'm truly delighted to have finished second in the most prestigious European Formula 3 race - even if I could have delivered an even better performance, today," he noted. "But Lewis was just faster, so the result is fine for me."
"In the Marlboro Masters it’s vital to secure a good grid position. As overtaking is extremely difficult, on this track, I knew that it would be anything but easy to pass Adrian. Therefore, I’m happy to have finished third," added di Grassi.
Some 18 seconds behind the dominating teams - ASM F3 and Manor Motorsport - Kohei Hirate impressed by securing fifth place, with his team-mate, Giedo van der Garde, rounding out the top six.
