Pascal Wehrlein defends second place in Formula 3 Euro Series

Sven Mller has a lot of bad luck and drops to sixthHankooks soft single-seater tyre provides plenty of grip

Zandvoort/Netherlands, August 26th, 2012 German junior drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Sven Mller remain successful in the Formula 3 Euro Series. At Zandvoort in The Netherlands, the two rookie drivers again scored valuable points at the weekend and in second and sixth place in the driversstandings, they remain in contention in their debut season in arguably the worlds toughest junior single-seater race series. With one race win, Spanish driver Daniel Juncadella extended his pointslead from second-placed Wehrlein. The 17-year old German, who scored his maiden Formula 3 Euro Series race win at the Nrburgring last week, scored a pair of third places at Zandvoort and finished seventh at one occasion. This allowed Wehrlein to defend his second place from Briton William Buller, while he also remains in contention for the overall title, which would open the door to a possible future career in Formula 1 even further. Sven Mller showed a strong performance while the challenging conditions at the Zandvoort dune circuit, with a mix of rain and sunshine, seemed to motivate him in particular.

At a wet, a drying and a dry track, the German did well in all conditions. However, the 20-year old had a lot of bad luck in the third and final race. On the opening lap already, he was pushed off the track by Italian Raffaele Marciello while in the lead and retired. Thus, he only scored points twice with one second and one fifth place and lost valuable points. Nevertheless, Mller is certainly a force to be reckoned with during the two final events at Valencia and the Hockenheimring. 

Since the start of the season, Hankook, the DTMs exclusive tyre partner, has also been supporting the Formula 3 Euro Series with the Ventus high performance competition tyre, that, however, is significantly different from the Ventus Race tyre being used for instance in the DTM. The classic 13 inch two-layer single-seater tyre is considerably smaller and the sidewall is softer than the DTM tyre (18 inch), and also takes over a lot of the damping and spring duties. It equals out slighter bumps before the cars springs react, ensures consistent contact to the road and thus generates superior traction. 

Contrarily, the DTM tyre includes three layers and thus has significantly harder and stiffer sidewalls. Bumps are being transferred to the suspension, the springs and the dampers of the car immediately, which, other than in single-seaters, are responsible for the permanent contact to the road.