The UK magazine ranked Linglong’s recently renamed Sport Master Winter higher than some strong mid-range competition, while the premium brands remain cold weather tyre champions
Following its 2025 summer UHP tyre test, Auto Express has published its latest survey of eight leading winter tyres. Auto Express tested four premium brand tyres, the Continental WinterContact TS 870, Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3, Bridgestone Blizzak 6, and the Michelin Alpin 7, which made up the top four overall. It also looked at two top mid-range tyres in the Vredestein Wintrac Pro+ and the Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro and two tyres from a couple of China’s biggest tyre-makers, the Linglong Sport Master Winter and the Triangle WinterX TW401. The magazine tested the tyres on snow and in wet and dry conditions.
Using the standard issue tyre test VW Golf, running on the popular 225/45 R17 size, Auto Express tested the tyres at Goodyear’s Arctic Center in Saariselkä, Finland for the snow tests and Continental’s Contidrom near Hanover, Germany – a northern European proving ground, providing chillier conditions – for the wet and dry tests. Track temperatures were between -4 and 7°C. This is because the optimal operating window for winter tyres starts at around 7°C (though full winter tyres are best when the temperature is below zero). The magazine published more precise details about its testing methods in the test report.
The weighting of these elements is always important to consider. Auto Express publishes its tests primarily for a UK readership, and therefore prizes performance in wet conditions above all other in recognition of the soggy island climate. In this case, 50% of the total grade was derived from the wet braking, handling, cornering and aquaplaning tests. It added 20% of the grade each for snow and dry performance, while the final 10% was derived from the tyres’ noise and rolling resistance, or fuel economy, tests. The winner in each discipline was then awarded 100%, with the remaining tyres scored as a percentage relative to the top tyre’s result.
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Conti secures third Auto Express commendation, but Goodyear provides very strong competition
Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 (Photo: Goodyear)
Auto Express called the Continental WinterContact TS 870 “unbeatable”, and the German manufacturer’s flagship winter tyre line continues to offer all-round ability that only Goodyear’s tyre could come close to matching. The tyre won in five disciplines, sealing the crucial victories on the wet and snow handling circuits, while also offering the shortest dry braking, lowest cabin noise, and relatively low rolling resistance. One curious anomaly in the tyre’s performance was a last-place finish in snow braking, stopping 2.5m shy of the Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 at the head of the pack, though Auto Express said the tyre “felt good on the brakes” around the snow handling circuit, where it performed best of all the tyres tested.
The Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 is clearly a superb tyre for wet and snowy conditions, providing ultimate safety on the aquaplaning tests and in wet and snow braking. Adding in the best snow traction, and the Goodyear tyre matched Conti with five discipline victories, winning a “highly recommended” rating from Auto Express. Testers also praised the feel of the tyre in all three conditions, calling it “wonderfully precise” in the wet and dry, while in the snow the tyre offered “progressive handling and quick recovery from slides that inspired confidence.” Only the tyre’s rolling resistance was less than stellar, perhaps not the prime concern in a winter tyre. Overall, the UltraGrip Performance 3 went toe-to-toe with the winner across the board.
Two more premium winter tyres impress
Bridgestone Blizzak 6 (Image: Bridgestone)
With overall performance within 1.5% of the top tyre Bridgestone’s Blizzak 6 and the Michelin Alpin 7 were strong contenders, rounding out a top four composed entirely of premium brand winter tyres. Auto Express said the Blizzak 6 was “an ideal UK winter tyre” since it was “particularly good in the cold, wet and dry”, demonstrating “agility and poise.” It was also the most economical tyre in the test, with top rolling resistance marks that only Michelin got close to matching. The Blizzak 6 was “handy” in the snow, but a step down from the leading tyres.
Michelin’s Alpin 7 was first in no tests but did provide a very balanced performance coupled with low rolling resistance. Unlike the Blizzak 6, the Alpin 7 mildly favoured snowy conditions, in which the tyre demonstrated “strong traction and braking”. The Alpin 7 also “inspired confidence” around the wet circuit, but despite strong dry braking, Auto Express said the tyre “lacked bite and precision” on the dry circuit.
Linglong ‘announces arrival’ on European winter tyre market
Linglong Sport Master Winter (Image: Linglong)
The Linglong Sport Master Winter was the surprise package in the test, and claimed the brand’s first ever discipline victory in an Auto Express test, beating the entire field around the dry handling circuit. The tyre put together an impressively balanced performance across the board, though it was notably weaker than most in aquaplaning resistance and in rolling resistance. Auto Express called the tyre “safe [and] predictable…with good braking” on snow, while “there wasn’t anything obvious missing from its performance” in the wet, though the test car “felt heavier and less biddable” than on competitor tyres. However, the big win for Linglong was in the dry, where the Sport Master Winter “felt like a summer tyre,” offering “loads of grip and clean, direct responses.” Though it is less economical to run, the tyre was acquired for just over half the price of the most-expensive tyre in the test.
This is more great news for Linglong and its flagship car tyre range for the European tyre market. The Sport Master 4S, an all-season cousin to the winter tyre, was commended as a “Best Value for Money” size 205/45 R17 all-season tyre in the recent Automobilclub von Deutschland (AvD) tyre test. (The tyre appears in the test under its previous name, the Grip Master 4S, though is the same product as before the mid-2025 rebrand.)
The all-round performance of the Vredestein Wintrac Pro+ and the Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro was very similar in terms of scores, though testers were more sceptical about the higher-placed Vredestein tyre’s performance than the Falken’s. Auto Express praised the Wintrac Pro+ for its “positive, exploitable and grippy” performance in the wet, in which it was “one of the best for feel.” However, the overall comment was that is seemed like the brand’s winter tyre had “stood sill while others have improved”, with performance that “lacked the positivity of the competition” on snow and in the dry.
In contrast, Auto Express said that “with just a little more improvement, [the Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro] could have finished further up the table.” This was primarily due to its “balanced and predictable” performance around all three handling circuits. The tyre also offered rolling resistance performance that rivalled the best tyres in the test. The criticism was similarly uniform across the three conditions: despite its predictability, which makes the tyre safe to run, the tyre lacks the grip of its competitors.
Auto Express’s designated budget tyre, the Triangle WinterX TW401, offered “fair” performance on the snow, leading to the tester preferring the tyre to a summer tyre in snowy conditions. It was also decent on the dry circuit, coming in second to Linglong on the handling test. However, Auto Express was quite scathing about the tyre’s wet performance with notably extended braking and “a worrying lack of grip, weak traction and a lack of lateral grip.”
Alternative fitments
Auto Express also used Pirelli’s Cinturato All Season SF3 (which has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake marking, certifying it for use in harsh winter conditions) and the summer Vredestein Ultrac+ (which does not) to demonstrate the difference in performance offered by full winter tyres over alternative fitments. While summer tyres are often illegal to run in European winter conditions, the UK has no such legislation; the performance on snow of even a quality summer tyre demonstrates the lack of grip many UK drivers face in the rare instances of snow-dusted roads. Pirelli’s all-season tyre, on the other hand was able to offer a reasonable compromise in both cold and harsh winter conditions.
How did Auto Express select the tyres?
Like other Auto Express tyre tests, the publication approached seven of the eight tyre manufacturers who nominated their choice of model to be tested. Pirelli and Hankook opted not to enter, since they are currently replacing the Cinturato Winter 2 and Winter i*cept RS3 respectively. The Triangle WinterX TW401 was selected by testers at random as a representative of “budget” winter tyres. Auto Express sourced the tyres used in the test “from the open market via an independent wholesale supplier in Germany.”
(Screenshot from Auto Express’s test page on 11/9/2025)
Blackcircles.com supports test
Online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com supported the Auto Express test, as it has over the past few years. The retailer’s commentary on each tyre, based on feedback from customers, was also included in the test report, though reading through the test, one wonders why they bothered. The retailer had almost no data for six of the eight tyres in the test, meaning that more often than not, its commentary started: “Blackcircles.com is unable to provide any insight…”
