Hamilton tops all-star Macau line-up.

Not content with dominating the F3 Euroseries, Britain's Lewis Hamilton will look to beat all-comers as he starts as favourite for this year's Macau Grand Prix.

The ASM driver heads for the streets of Macau on 17-20 November having enjoyed an overwhelmingly successful 2005 campaign, and is being tipped by almost everyone to round off his season by adding his name on the famous Macau trophy.

Hamilton wrapped up this year's Euroseries championship before August was over, and with two race meetings left to go. While he had the benefit of driving for the best team this year, he has still extracted far more from the ultra-fast package than team-mate Adrian Sutil, and with a minimum of mistakes, as he also added the mid-season Zandvoort Masters title along the way.

One potential challenger in the Macau field will be Sebastian Vettel, who takes over from Sutil at ASM for the race. Vettel has improved throughout the Euroseries this year, recently getting to test a Williams-BMW F1 machine, and will certainly be one to watch, although he has no prior Macau experience, unlike Hamilton.

ASM's nearest challenger in the Euroseries, Manor Motorsport, will also be present in the Far East, with season regulars Lucas di Grassi and Paul di Resta remain with the Mercedes-powered team. Fellow frontrunner Franck Perera (Prema Powerteam) will also be in the line-up, as will Team Rosberg's Kohei Hirate. French team Signature will field Loic Duval and Guillaume Moreau, but James Rossiter looks set to miss the event.

The leading runners in the Japanese championship will all make the trip to Macau, including champion Joao Paulo de Oliveira. The Brazilian's TOM's Dallara-Toyota team-mate Kazuki Nakajima will join him, as will Three Bond's Dallara-Nissan race-winner Naoki Yokomizo.

Crack British team Carlin Motorsport will be out in force, with UK series frontrunners Christian Bakkerud and Charlie Kimball flying the flag, alongside Polish driver Robert Kubica, who steps back from winning the World Series by Renault title for another crack at the crown he narrowly missed out on last year.

The nephew of Macau's first ever F3 winner, Ayrton Senna, will be on the grid this year, as Bruno Senna makes his Macau F3 debut with new British team Raikkonen Robertson Racing. However, unlike several others, it won't be the Brazilian's first experience of the track as he finished second in the Formula Renault race last year.

"Macau really means a lot because it's the most important F3 race," Senna said, "It's really nice to have the opportunity of going there and driving the fantastic circuit that they have. I expect to be competitive there because I know the circuit and it makes a big difference - I expect to be top of the F3 rookies."

Not all the cars in the field will be Dallaras, as Steven Kane will drive a Lola for Promatecme, having already won in Britain this season, and Brazilian Fabio Carbone will drive the developing SLC chassis entered by Signature in the Euroseries.

Danny Watts, who has had several F3 outings this year, but has been unable to secure backing for a full season, returns to Macau for the third time thanks to backing by Noble Group, while local fans will have several home-grown drivers to cheer on. Rodolfo Avila has been a frontrunner in the Asian F3 series this year, but will race with Austrian HBR Motorsport team and has been testing in Europe as preparation.

"My main target is to finish the race," the 18-year old admitted, "At the same time, however, I want to be the best amongst the local drivers."

Joining Avila in representing Macau will be Jo Merszei, Lou Meng Cheong, Lei Kit Meng and Michael Ho.