Ugo Ugochukwu has converted pole position to the first victory of the 2024 FIA FR World Cup as he kept his cool to win the Qualifying Race today in Macau. He held onto the lead in his R-ace GP car by the narrowest of margins from MP Motorsport’s Olivier Goethe who started second, and Noel León who completed the podium positions for KCMG IXO by Pinnacle Motorsport.

The racing gods have thus far been determined to make the challenge of the 71st Macau Grand Prix as tough as possible for the FR drivers. The weekend has been dominated by heavy rain and multiple red flags, and the weather would again become the story of the afternoon as the drivers fought to set their grid positions for Sunday’s main event.

The clouds were looming as the cars formed up on the grid, but to the relief of the drivers, teams and fans, the 10-lap contest got underway in dry conditions. The front row starters streamed through Mandarin side-by-side, but polesitter Ugochukwu kept his nerve and held the inside line into Lisboa. Despite another attack from Goethe on the exit, he was able to stay ahead until the safety car was brought out to clear a crash that had happened further down the order.

As the field pulled away from the grid, Sota Ogawa carried too much speed into Mandarin and slid his TGM Grand Prix car off into the barrier. The Macau rookie Tuukka Taponen seemed drawn into an almost identical mistake behind, effectively ending his hopes of a solid showing in his first Macau Grand Prix as he will be starting tomorrow's race from the rear of the field.

The safety car returned to the pits at the end of lap three, and Ugochukwu made a textbook restart – a crucial skill around the Guia Circuit – to break away from the chasing pack into Fisherman’s and deny Goethe the chance of a slipstream overtake.

From there the front pair managed to match one another for pace, with the gap hovering around the one second mark. Behind, León was kept honest by SJM Theodore Prema’s Freddie Slater, who had made a move past Enzo Deligny’s R-ace GP machine at around half race distance.

Further down the order, some of the top drivers who had started towards the back following drama in yesterday’s qualifying session were making progress, particularly the SJM Theodore Prema duo of Dino Beganovic and Alex Dunne, who moved from 15th and 18th on the grid to 11th and 13th respectively with five laps to go.

Then, with four laps left, Sainteloc Racing’s Théophile Naël went straight on at Lisboa, but managed to quickly recover and slot back in just ahead of Dunne in 12th. The incident would end up having unfortunate consequences for Dunne, as it meant he overtook a car under the yellow flag thrown for Naël, leading to a one-place penalty that will drop him to 14th for the main event tomorrow. 

Shortly thereafter, the #3 MP Motorsport machine of Mattia Colnaghi also went off into the escape road at Lisboa, and it soon became clear that the rain that had been threatening since the start of the contest had started to fall.

There was no option but to red flag and bring the cars back to the pits, with a heavy downpour only affecting a small section of the track. Race Control mandated wet tyres be fitted to all cars before sending the field back out behind the safety car, but the standing water in the braking zone at the fastest point on the track made it impossible to get green flag racing underway again.

Ugochukwu, therefore, led Goethe, León, Slater, and Deligny to the chequered flag without challenge, ensuring the 17-year-old the best possible starting position for the 71st Macau Grand Prix tomorrow. Goethe has had one attempt at passing from second on the grid today, and will surely do all he can to make the move stick tomorrow when the lights go out at 15:30 local time.

Ugo Ugochukwu, R-ace GP, said: “The start wasn’t bad, but he [Goethe] managed to get alongside, but I was able to keep the lead in T3 which was crucial. Those first few laps were really good, and I got a good safety car restart, which gave me a gap. The car was feeling really good in those conditions, and I was just trying to manage the gap as best as possible. I’m really happy with today’s win. It puts us in a really good position for tomorrow again, and with how the pace was today I’m really confident going into tomorrow that I’ll be able to try to get a really good result and take the win.”

Oliver Goethe, MP Motorsport, said: “It was definitely a close start! I think I got a bit of a better launch off the line, but then for Mandarin, I kept it flat all the way up to the wall, but on the inside, you do less distance and there’s a bit more grip there, so Ugo managed to get a bit more and have the inside line for the braking. I got close at the end when it started to rain but the braking was really sketchy into T3, a bit too on the limit to make a move there. It was just raining in that section so it was tricky to pass today, but there’s still a longer race tomorrow and I’m going to go for it.”

Noel León, KCMG IXO by Pinnacle, said: “I got a good launch at the start, but of course I couldn’t keep flat in Turn 2 because I was really close to them [the drivers ahead] and had to lift a bit. Then we arrived to Lisboa and I got hit from behind and almost ended in the wall, so tomorrow we need to have a bit of a better launch to have a more space for the braking in T3. This race you need to keep it on track for tomorrow – tomorrow is the important race.”

The FIA FR World Cup, along with the co-headlining FIA GT World Cup, will be livestreamed on the FIA’s official YouTube channel.