Hankook Ventus Prime 2 tyre review

Further proof of Hankook’s progress, although the brand still has some work to do on fuel economy.

It’s no coincidence that models from top brands like Mercedes and BMW are now being fitted with Hankook tyres as original equipment. The Korean company has made major progress in recent years, as proven by the S1 evo2’s fourth place finish in our 17-inch tyre test in 2013, and the Prime 2 repeats the feat this year.

It took a string of top five places in our individual tests, and was close to the pace in other assessments, with rolling resistance the only real causefor concern. The Prime 2 was seventh here, 16 per cent behind the winning Goodyear – that means it would use around three per cent more fuel.

It didn’t perform especially well in our wet braking test, needing a metre longer than our winner to come to a halt, but overall this tyre fared well in the wet, finishing third across these tests behind the remarkable Goodyear Dunlop duo. It even came out on top on the wet circle. Handling was well controlled and stable through the turns and sweeps of the wet track, with the nose pushing safely wide as you got close to the limit. A positive turn-in to the sharper stuff encouraged you to carry in more speed. It performed well in the deeper water, with those wide, longitudinal channels in the asymmetric tread helping the tyre achieve second and fourth in our aquaplaning tests.

The Hankook trailed in the dry – it felt soft compared to rivals and struggled to hold the line on the power. Still, this was an asset in our noise test, where the tyre finished top alongside the Pirelli.