Zandvoort, 10.August 2003(bu)

Press Release Circuit Zandvoort

Klien´s big win in the sun

Zandvoort, August 10, 2003 - Austria´s Christian Klien won the 13th Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort, Holland today, pushed all the way to the chequered flag by Nelson Piquet Jnr. The 20-year old from near the Bodensee in West Austria took the lead into the first corner and never lost it, but he never held a lead of much more than a second throughout, and that was down to just 0.321s when the chequered flag came out at the end of the sunny 25 lap race. 50.000 spectators attended the weekend.

"It is the biggest and most fantastic win of my career," said Klien afterwards. " I think the Marlboro Master is the biggest win you can have in Formula Three. I had a very good start," continued Klien. "It was important for the race because it´s so difficult to overtake here.

"It was a hard race because it was very hot, but I think we had a good set-up and I was able to set some fast laps at the beginning so that I had some space. But Nelson was very fast and he pushed hard. I saw him in the mirror but I don´t think he had a very good chance to overtake because it´s so difficult here.The car was still good at the end of the race and I think that was the reason why I could stay in front."

Klien´s win is the first big success for a Mercedes Formula Three engine and it was only Klien´s second win in Formula Three. He paid tribute to his ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg team, and his teammate Markus Winkelhock who finished sixth. "I had a lot of help from Markus. We work well together," he confirmed.

Piquet tried to put a brave face on being beaten into second, admitting that it was all down to the start as he had suspected after qualifying. "Unfortunately I didn´t have a very good start,"admitted the Brazilian. "The race was quite difficult. The car was quite good on most of the circuit but in the last curve it was understeering which lost you speed on the whole straight. I"ve been sick this weekend which meant I was tired in the race."

Of the move that got him close to Klien with a few laps to go, Piquet explained that "I thought I would push push push with four laps remaining, but I made a little mistake and then I tried to catch up but it was too late. I got pretty close on the last lap, but the car wasn´t perfect and without a perfect car, you can´t win a race."

Third place went to Australian Ryan Briscoe, who shadowed the leaders all the way. " I got a reasonable start but I was hoping for a bit more from the tyres, but I didn´t get what I wanted. The extra heat today meant that the car balance wasn´t so good and at the end of the race I was struggling with understeer in every corner. It made it very difficult."

Behind the first three, Nicolas Lapierre had a lonely race to fourth place, but Jamie Green had a battle royal on his hands with Winkelhock all the way to the chequered flag where they finished fifth and sixth.

The race was enjoyed by some 50,000 spectators, who were also treated to superb demonstrations on both days by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro whose test drivers Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa performed spins turns and standing starts in Formula One Ferraris; and the Ducati Marlboro team whose riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss did wheelies and burned rubber, watched all the time by Randy Mamola on the two-seater bike.

13th Marlboro Masters(25 laps): 1, Christian Klien(D), 44m 32.801s; 2, Nelson Piquet(BR), 44m 33.122s; 3, Ryan Briscoe(AUS), 44m 35.807s; 4, Nicolas Lapierre(F), 44m 42.319s; 5, Jamie Green(GB), 44m 47.939s; 6, Markus Winkelhock(D), 44m 48.532s; etc.