F3 - 2015 RACE OF MACAU - Qualifying
28 drivers with 18 different nationalities, representing 13 teams from seven countries, with four different engine brands have assembled in Macau for this weekend’s FIA Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup, the undisputed highlight of the 62nd running of the Macau Grand Prix weekend. In the first of two qualifying sessions, reigning FIA Formula 3 European Champion and defending Macau winner Felix Rosenqvist (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Powerteam, 2:11.841 minutes) put his Dallara-Mercedes on provisional pole position, followed by British driver Calum Ilott (Carlin, 2:12.663 minutes), who showed a surprising speed to become the fastest Macau rookie. Stalwart Antonio Giovinazzi (Carlin with LC8.com, 2:12.824 minutes), who posted the fastest time in free practice, provisionally claimed third place on the starting grid from Brit Sam MacLeod (Team West-Tec F3, 2:13.109 minutes) and the 2011 Macau Grand Prix winner and current Mercedes-Benz DTM works driver Daniel Juncadella (Fortec Motorsport, 2:13.412 minutes).
Free practice: Giovinazzi fastest in the morning
Action started on Thursday morning with 40 minutes of free practice at the 6.120 kilometres long Guia street circuit, all drivers were eager to get their first laps in in preparation for the weekend. Red flags flew for the first time 14 minutes into the session after Jake Dennis (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Powerteam, 2:21.263 minutes) hit the Armco barriers at Teddy Yip Bend. The British driver escaped unscathed and the marshals were quick to remove the stranded car, allowing action to be resumed after six minutes.
Other drivers to hit trouble were Double R Racing team-mates Alexander Sims (Double R Racing, 2:16.824 minutes) and Matt Solomon (Double R Racing, 2:22.761 minutes), who both managed to run into the barriers at Lisboa within three minutes of each other. Callum Ilott (Carlin, 2:18.976 minutes) having crashed at Faraway almost at the same time as Solomon, red flags were out for the second time to allow for the crashed cars to be removed. At that time, Antonio Giovinazzi (Carlin with LC8.com, 2:13.829 minutes) already topped the time sheets, but a quick final lap allowed him to improve his time once more. Defending Macau F3 champion Felix Rosenqvist (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Powerteam, 2:14.583 minutes) also set his fastest time on his final lap and ended up second-fastest from German Markus Pommer (Motopark, 2:15.122). Three Japanese drivers, Kenta Yamashita (Tom’s, 2:15.473 minutes), Yuhi Sekiguchi (B-Max Racing, 2:15.643 minutes), Yu Kanumaru (Carlin, 2:15.926 minutes), rounded out the top six.
Qualifying 1: Rosenqvist a class of his own
In first qualifying, Felix Rosenqvist got himself in a good position to achieve his goal for this weekend: crowning the season in which he already won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship title with a second consecutive win of the Macau Grand Prix. Early in the session already, the Swedish stalwart moved up to the top of the time sheets and managed to improve his lap time to a good 2:12.736 minutes before heading back to the pits, where he waited for the other drivers to try and beat his time. Giovinazzi came within one tenth of a second of Rosenqvist’s time, but the Swede remained on top.
The session ran for the scheduled 40 minutes without interruption and several drivers managed to improve their lap times in the final quarter. Among them was Felix Rosenqvist, whose final run saw him end up as the only driver to post a lap time under 2:12 minutes. His time of 2:11.841 minutes was more than enough to claim provisional pole, no less than 0.822 seconds faster than Calum Ilott, who did very well by claiming a provisional spot on the front row of the grid on his first visit to Macau. Behind Giovinazzi, MacLeod, Juncadella and Markus Pommer (Motopark, 2:13.741) in third to sixth place, Yuhi Sekiguchi (B-Max Racing Team, 2:13.744 minutes) ended up as the best-placed driver from the ranks of the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 2:13.757 minutes), Gustavo Menezes (Carlin, 2:13.903 minutes) and Alexander Sims (Double R Racing, 2:13.950 minutes) rounded out the top ten.
Quotes of the three fastest drivers after first qualifying:
Felix Rosenqvist: “We pretended that the session was a free practice and did some aero testing. We kept the old tyres from Free Practice 1 this morning. I think I made a good step in understanding the Prema car. At the beginning I couldn’t really push, because I wasn’t very confident, but now I figured how I can attack the corners. So it was a really good session.”
Callum Ilott: “Unlike in the practice session this morning I decided to really build up to it, but my starting laps were already quite quick. I was already P9 about ten minutes into the session. Although we were on old tyres while some people went for new ones, I just kept getting quicker and quicker. I looked at the board and I saw P4, P3, P2 and I was expecting from that minute that everyone would fly past and it didn’t happen. So quite an unexpected result. I knew I would do quite well, as I like to push on tricky circuits, but I didn’t think I’d do that well.”
Antonio Giovinazzi: “I think qualifying could have been better. We had problems in the end of the session, when the team put on a new set of tyres. The car was very good with the old set of tyres, as I was just half a tenth behind Felix on those. But with the new tyres I was struggling. Anyway, this is only Qualifying 1, we still have Qualifying 2 tomorrow.
Facebook
Twitter
