The FINANCIAL — Daniel Juncadella won the 58th Macau Grand Prix on Sunday, securing his first victory on this challenging street circuit.
The Spanish driver concluded his second season in the Formula 3 Euro Series in third place overall, with four victories and 14 podium finishes. Four drivers using the Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engine finished in the top seven of the Macau Grand Prix.
The Macau GP is one of the most prestigious races of the year. The event has been staged on the Guia street circuit since 1954, with Formula 3 regulations being adopted in 1983. Previous winners of the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix include F1 legend Ayrton Senna, record F1 title winner and MERCEDES GP PETRONAS driver Michael Schumacher, plus current Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher.
In three successive seasons between 2004 and 2006, victory in the Macau GP went to a driver powered by a Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engine: Alexandre Prémat, Lucas di Grassi and Mike Conway.
Promoting young racing talent is a long-standing tradition at Mercedes-Benz. Since the Formula 3 Euro Series was first staged in 2003, drivers powered by Mercedes-Benz engines have won almost 80 percent of all races and seven out of nine drivers’ championships. In the same period, 13 drivers made the step up to Formula One, having served their apprenticeship with Mercedes-Benz power in Formula 3. One third of the 2011 F1 starting grid learned their trade in Formula 3 with a Mercedes-Benz engine, including world champions Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, 2010 DTM champion Paul Di Resta, Adrian Sutil, Kamui Kobayashi, Sébastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari and Bruno Senna.
Similar successes have been achieved in other top racing series by former members of the Mercedes-Benz junior development programme. Of the nine Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers in the 2011 season, five started out in Formula 3 driving a Mercedes-Benz powered car.
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