Vanthoor briefly took the lead once the race got underway. Aboard his BMW M4 GT3, the Belgian manged to get his nose ahead of the sister machine of polesitter Raffaele Marciello, but did not get to enjoy the lead for long, running too deep into the Lisboa corner and allowing the incumbent FIA GT World Cup winner to resettle into the lead.

The younger of the Vanthoor brothers wasn’t, however, willing to lay his weapons down, demonstrating stellar pace and being the fastest man on track in the closing stages of the race. He went on to reduce the gap to the Italian two-time FIA GT World Cup winner from 1.5s at mid-distance to 0.7s at the chequered flag. Marciello’s lead never seemed truly under threat, as he remained in control and went on to take the victory.

The opening tour of the 12-lap heat was where the starting order reshuffled in multiple places throughout the field. Starting from fourth on the gird, Ferrari’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Antonio Fuoco managed to break into the top three at the expense of Mercedes-AMG’s 11-time Macau GP veteran Maro Engel.

Fourth and fifth were two more BMW drivers Augusto Farfus and Sheldon van der Linde, with the two finishing where they started, but with the South African claiming the fastest lap of the race on the final round of the 6.12-kilomtere Guia Circuit.

Seventh came the best of the Porsches and the best of the gold-ranked drivers Alessio Picariello in the Absolute Racing machine, who managed to get ahead of his compatriot team-mate Laurens Vanthoor on the opening lap.

The top ten was completed by Audi’s Christopher Haase and Macau GP specialist Edoardo Mortara, representing Lamborghini for the first time in the event.

The Swiss racer started down in 11th on the grid, having failed to complete his last-gasp flying lap in Friday’s qualifying that was cut short following Luca Engstler’s high-speed accident at the exit of the Mandarin corner.

Mortara managed to improve his position in the race, getting ahead of compatriot Ricardo Feller, who, having started ninth, lost two places on the opening lap.

In the closing stages of the race, Feller tried to move back into the top 10, putting immense pressure on Mortara, with the two running nose-to-tail, but the order ultimately remained unchanged.

Adderly Fong in the fan-favourite Kuromi-themed Audi crossed the line as the best of the silver-ranked drivers in 19th place.

The race saw 22 cars taking the start following yesterday’s qualifying crash of Engstler’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 that finished the weekend for the young German who was experiencing the Guia Circuit for the first time in GT machinery, having previously competed here in a TCR car.

Tomorrow’s title-deciding 16-lap FIA GT World Cup will be streamed live via the FIA’s official YouTube channel.