Hynes storms to Masters victory

Hynes, second in the British championship, qualified his Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda third and then made a demon start to squeeze ahead of German pole position man Thomas Mutsch to take the lead.

Mutsch, driving a van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Opel, tracked Hynes closely through the opening laps, but then the Briton - who had nursed his Bridgestone tyres early in the race - was able to pull away as his rivals lost performance.

The 21-year-old backed off over the last couple of laps to finish 1.8s ahead of Mutsch and find himself crowned as the unofficial F3 champion of Europe.

'It feels pretty good,' said an elated Hynes. 'Zandvoort is my favourite race - the sort of event you don't want to lose. I got the start I wanted and it was fairly easy from then on.

'There was a lot of pressure early on, but I saved my tyres and then paid off in the middle and later stages of the race.

'This is an outstanding achievement for Manor Motorsport - they're a new team in F3 but now they stand out as the best in Europe.'

Mutsch fell away as the race wore on and came under pressure from South African team-mate Etienne van der Linde.

Van der Linde made a mighty effort to outbrake Mutsch into the Tarzan hairpin on the 16th lap of the 20.

He swept around the outside and briefly took second, but missed the apex, slid wide, and lost out again to Mutsch.

French championship leader Sebastien Bourdais put pressure on van der Linde early on, but was in trouble with locking brakes and lost fourth to Dutch local hero Christijan Albers.

Albers then chased van der Linde, but was unable to get close enough to pass.

Bourdais also lost out to charging British teenager Jenson Button, who fought through brilliantly from 12th to fifth in his Promatecme UK Dallara-Renault.

Button then caught the Mutsch/van der Linde/Albers train but could make no further impression.

'It's the most fun I've had this year - in a racing car anyway,' grinned Button.

'Starting 12th I made it difficult for myself and in the late stages the tyres were destroyed, but I'm happy.'

Another Dutchman, Walter van Lent, took sixth when Bourdais and Swede Peter Sundberg (the Italian series leader) clashed at the Nissanbocht chicane.

That also promoted Dane Kristian Kolby to seventh, the British series regular holding off Michele Spoldi and Toby Scheckter.

Essex racer Matt Davies did the most overtaking. The Fortec Dallara driver had spun off in qualifying, so started yesterday's last-chance race from 18th and last grid spot.

He managed to finish fifth and take the final slot on the 33-car grid for today's race, then fought through spectacularly to 15th.