This year’s Macau Grand Prix is the first to use Formula Regional cars, which are one step below FIA Formula 3 Championship equipment and a step above Formula 4.
Qualifying 2 was scheduled to last 40 minutes but took nearly two hours to complete for stoppages. Six of the seven interruptions were due to crashes at the Guia Street Circuit.
The first red flag was drawn seven-and-a-half minutes into the session when TGM Grand Prix driver Rintaro Sato, son of Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato, lost control of his car at Moorish Hill.
Prema driver Alex Dunne was left with nowhere to go and tried to squeeze through a gap, but hit the stricken Sato. Moments later, Dunne’s teammate Dino Beganovic piled into Sato.
The session resumed and with 28 minutes left on the clock, R-ace GP driver Tuukka Taponen crashed at the same spot.
The field got eight minutes of green flag running before another red flag for TOM’S driver Jin Nakamura who crashed at the final turn. Australia’s James Wharton was given a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision.
The session resumed briefly only to be red-flagged again for lengthy barrier repairs.
With a little more than 13 minutes to go, the other TOM’S driver Rikuto Kobayashi crashed at Fisherman’s Bend. Then ART Grand Prix drivers Wharton and Evan Giltaire crashed together.
Sato going sideways into the barriers, leaving no option to Alex Dunne and Dino Beganovic. Tough time for the Prema team. Slater remaining on track. Red Flag.
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The seventh red flag came with just over three minutes to go in the session and spelled the end of qualifying, this time for Kiwi Motorsport’s Jett Bowling at the final turn.
Ther seven red flags compounded an already chaotic event. The previous FIA FR World Cup session featured five red flags.
“All drivers were called to a second Drivers’ Briefing following the session, during which the Race Director, together with Single-Seater Committee President and two time Macau race winner Emanuele Pirro, expressed their concerns with some of the driving standards demonstrated during both today’s Free Practice 2 and Qualifying 2,” an FIA report read.
“The drivers have been asked specifically to consider their attitude towards this incredible racetrack, particularly as they go out on their opening laps.”
Australian duo Cooper Webster and Wharton qualified sixth and 11th respectively. R-ace GP driver Ugo Ugochukwu claimed pole position for the Qualifying Race, which will set the grid for the 71st Macau Grand Prix.
“That was by far the most intense quali session I’ve ever had,” said Ugochukwu.
“Initially as you said it was the first running in the dry, so it was really hard to know where the limit was.
“We were just pushing it more and more every lap and to get it at the end I’m super happy, especially on such a special circuit, just having to get closer and closer to the limit, but of course there’s no room for a mistake, and that’s what makes it so special.
“I’m really happy to be on pole.”
Qualifying 2 marked the first opportunity for the FIA FR World Cup drivers to set laps in the dry after Thurday’s practice sessions and Qualifying 1 were soaked.
MP Motorsport driver Oliver Goethe, who qualified second by 0.014s, had his own dramas.
“If you imagine the session already being so chaotic, for me it was even more! I accidentally set off the fire extinguisher, which added that extra bit of stress, but thankfully there was another red flag to repair the barriers and it gave the mechanics time to fix everything,” said Goethe.
“They did a great job to get me back out, and in the end it was such a crazy session, so many red flags and every lap was so crucial.
“In the end we didn’t know when it was going to be the last one, and with the track evolving and the drivers improving, we knew that the times would keep getting quicker.
“Thankfully in the last lap I got a good lap in, but gutted to miss out on pole by that tiny margin.”
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