Lewis Hamilton celebrates his twelfth win in 2005

In today’s round at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Lewis Hamilton (ASM F3, Dallara-Mercedes) clinched his twelfth win in the 2005 season. The Briton who already succeeded in securing the 2005 drivers’ title, passed the previous leader, Giedo van der Garde (Team Rosberg, Dallara-Opel), on lap eleven to subsequently control the field and win the race in superior style. At the end of the 20-lap race, van der Garde took the runner-up position, with rookie Sebastian Vettel (Mücke Motorsport, Dallara-Mercedes) finishing third.

Due to the wet conditions, the race was started behind the Safety-Car, hence, there was no battle for positions and pole-sitter Giedo van der Garde led the field in lap one, followed by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, second and third respectively on the grid. Four eight rounds, Hamilton battled it out with the German, but then he succeeded in passing him. Three laps later, he also passed Giedo van der Garde, thus taking the lead. In the closing stages, Vettel was involved in a thrilling battle with Adrian Sutil (ASM F3, Dallara-Mercedes) for third place, but at the end of the day, the rookie got the upper hand over the champion’s team-mate.

In the championship, second placed Adrian Sutil holds now a 31-point lead over now third placed Franck Perera (Prema Powerteam, Dallara-Opel), who finished fifth in today’s race. Should neither Perera nor Lucas di Grassi (Manor Motorsport, Dallara-Mercedes) win tomorrow’s round, Sutil will have secured the runner-up position in the championship already two rounds prior to the end of the season.

Lewis Hamilton (ASM F3): “This has been my arguably best race in the season so far. It was big fun. The battle with Sebastian Vettel was really great and I think that it was also a great race for the spectators.”

Giedo van der Garde (Team Rosberg): “In the opening stages, things went nice and my tyres were really good. Later, their performance started to degrade and that’s why Hamilton could pass me without any problems. Yet, we are clearly on the way up. I wouldn’t mind if things continued this way.”

Sebastian Vettel (Mücke Motorsport): “In the opening stages I tried to save my wets. Lewis was just to fast to prevent him from passing me. In the final eight minutes of the race I pushed harder as Sutil was closing in on me. Unfortunately my tyre saving strategy didn’t pay off and my tyres were finished just half a lap later. But it seems that Adrian’s tyres were in a similar condition - and we had a great battle.”

Track temperature: 16.0 ºC
Air temperature: 14.1 ºC