|
|
 |
 HAMILTON is 2005 masters champion on Kumho tyres
|
|
|
|
|
 British driver Lewis Hamilton scored a lights-to-flag win over team-mate Adrian Sutil from Germany in this year's Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 race at Zandvoort to give KUMHO its fourth champion as Official Tyre Supplier to Europe's top F3 event. The two young aces both drive Dallara-Mercedes for the ultra-successful F3 Euro Series team, ASM Formule 3.
Polesitter Hamilton dominated the race, just he had done the qualifying sessions, and won with a comfortable margin of some 6.5 seconds. In the press conference following the race he explained his strategy: "I conserved my tyres for the first 10 laps and once I'd opened up a big enough gap it was a matter of staying consistent and not making any mistakes."
Hamilton also succeeded in breaking the F3 lap record at Zandvoort by half a second in the process, setting a time of 1 min. 32.866 sec. and earning him the coveted KUMHO TYRES Fastest Lap award. Third place on the podium went to talented Brazilian Lucas di Grassi in his Manor Motorsport Dallara Mercedes.
 Thirty seven drivers from no less than 16 countries contested the 15th Marlboro Masters of F3 race which was watched by an estimated 40,000 spectators. Live TV coverage was broadcast to some five million Dutch homes. Previous Masters winners include current F1 drivers David Coulthard, Takuma Sato and Christian Klien.
The president of KUMHO TIRE Europe, Mr Y D Yoon, presented the Fastest Lap award while the podium finishers received their trophies from Dutch premier Jan-Peter Balkenende.
Each car is allowed to use up to three sets of KUMHO S700 'slicks' or dry weather tyres during the weekend from a batch of more than 800 which were specially made and brought to Zandvoort for the Marlboro Masters. These were fitted at the circuit
by a 13-strong team of experienced technicians and engineers headed by European motorsport manager Steve Thompson.
Thompson commented: "We are delighted to be able to supply our tyres for the most prestigious event in the European F3 calendar. Once again they have shown great consistency of performance throughout qualifying and race. We congratulate Lewis on his success."
Extensive motorsport tyre line-up
KUMHO's expertise in developing racing and rallying tyres is demonstrated in its extensive array of new and existing motorsport products. The long list of ECSTA branded products includes the S700 slick and W700 wet for F3 and sports car racing, the popular V70A circuit racing, track day and tarmac rally tyre, the new R800 forest/gravel tyre and the FIA approved C03 and TW01 tarmac rally tyres. |
|
|
|
|
