Hamilton leads ASM 1-2 in Monaco.

Lewis Hamilton continued his domination of the F3 Euroseries by taking his fifth win of the year at the head of another ASM 1-2 in the first of two races supporting the Monaco Grand Prix.

The McLaren-Mercedes prot?g? made a strong start from pole position and was never headed in the 18-lap encounter, eventually crossing the line 1.777secs ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil. Once in front, the Briton managed a controlled race as the principality lived up to its reputation as a tough place to pass. As a result, much of the grid held station from start to finish, with Lo?c Duval taking his Signature-Plus Dallara-Opel to third place, albeit a massive 12.5secs adrift of the ASM duo.

"It's just fantastic to win here, something very special," Hamilton admitted, "Adrian was extremely fast and it was really difficult to keep him behind. I had to work really hard to be the first to take the chequered flag."

Like most of his rivals, Sutil admitted that finding a way past the car in front was tough, and he had other things on his mind.

"To complete 18 laps on a street circuit, you have to be far more focused than in a race at a regular track," the German explained, "During the course of the race, I got along better and better as I gained additional experience, but I couldn't pass Lewis."

Hamilton's progress was halted on lap seven, when the safety car came out to cover the reclamation of Thomas Holzer's car, which had skidded into the barriers exiting the Swimming Pool chicane. After two laps of trundling around, Hamilton jumped back into his lead at the restart, and controlled the field to take his fifth win of 2005.

Duval had Signature-Plus team-mate James Rossiter for company for much of the race, the Briton having vaulted past Franck Perera, who went on to take fifth for Prema Powerteam.

"I made a solid start but had no chance of passing Adrian or Lewis," Duval reported, "After the safety car phase, I suddenly experienced a suspension problem, which made my car's handling extremely nervous and aggressive. As I will be again third on the grid for tomorrow's race, we will have to wait and see if I will be able secure a better result."

F3 veteran Fabio Carbone took sixth for Signature, ahead of the Manor Motorsport pairing of Lucas di Grassi and Paul di Resta. Maximilian G?tz, who should have featured in the points, was penalised with a drive-thru penalty for jumping the start and eventually came home 15th.

The top ten was rounded out by Richard Antinucci and Alejandro Nunez, after Guillaume Moreau exited on lap three.