Qualifying report
F3 Macau GP
Macau GP: Da Costa grabs provisional pole as crashes mar session
Antonio Felix da Costa came through an incident-packed first qualifying session – which featured four red flag stoppages – to secure provisional pole position for the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix qualification race on Thursday.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Dec 7, 2016, 1:40 PM
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Da Costa was among the fastest cars throughout the shortened session that witnessed a series of incidents.
But it was the Carlin driver’s best effort with 12-minutes remaining that secured him the front spot before a final red flag – caused by Daniel Juncadella crashing at Fishermen’s Bend – brought qualifying to an early end.
“It’s still very early days because so much can happen on a Macau Grand Prix weekend, but it’s always better to end up first than last,” said da Costa. “I quickly could get up to speed with the track, but wasn’t so happy with the car after first practice this morning.
“But the team did a great job to make some changes and everything clicked, so I’m pretty happy.”
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Callum Ilott ended up second fastest after briefly topping the timesheets prior to da Costa’s best overall time – ending the day 0.226 seconds down.
Felix Rosenqvist, who had been quickest in morning practice, was the third fastest driver as he said he still needed to better understand the new Pirelli tyres that are being used in Macau for the first time.
Japanese F3 champion Kenta Yamashita ended up fourth quickest, after recovering from losing a wheel in the early stages of the session – and causing the first red flag to come out after 15 minutes to allow it to be recovered.
The second red flag came out eight minutes later when a car was briefly stranded in the middle of the track before Lisboa.
The third stoppage was caused with 12 minutes remaining after Lando Norris – an impressive seventh quickest – crashed at San Francisco at the same time as Joel Eriksson crashed at the Solitude Esses.
The session was stopped for good after Juncadella, who ended up fifth, hit the barriers at Fishermen’s with two minutes remaining.
Qualifying results:
Pos Name Team Time Gap 1 
Antonio Felix Da Costa Carlin 02:11.5 2 
Callum Ilott Van Amersfoort Racing 02:11.8 0.226 3 
Felix Rosenqvist SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 02:11.8 0.262 4 
Kenta Yamashita ThreeBond with T-Sport 02:11.8 0.262 5 
Daniel Juncadella Hitech GP 02:11.8 0.286 6 
Sergio Sette Camara Carlin 02:12.0 0.459 7 Lando Norris Carlin 02:12.0 0.461 8 
Nick Cassidy SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 02:12.1 0.588 9 Jake Hughes Carlin 02:12.4 0.825 10 Sam Macleod Fortec Motorsport 02:12.5 1.001 11 Alexander Sims Double R Racing 02:12.6 1.065 12 
Arjun Maini Motopark 02:12.7 1.122 13 George Russell Hitech GP 02:12.7 1.135 14 
Anthoine Hubert Van Amersfoort Racing 02:12.7 1.192 15 
Maximilian Gunther SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 02:13.0 1.482 16 Daniel Ticktum Double R Racing 02:13.1 1.567 17 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing 02:13.3 1.741 18 
CHANG Wing Chung ThreeBond with T-Sport 02:13.3 1.801 19 
Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP 02:13.4 1.903 20 Joel Eriksson Motopark 02:13.5 1.944 21 
YE Hong Li B-Max Racing Team 02:14.0 2.477 22 David Beckmann Mucke Motorsport 02:14.1 2.527 23 Jann Mardenborough B-Max Racing Team 02:14.2 2.639 24 ZHOU Guan Yu Motopark 02:14.3 2.743 25 Keyvan Andres Soori Mcke Motorsport 02:14.8 3.268 26 Sho Tsuboi Team TOM'S 02:15.1 3.516 27 Daiki Sasaki B-Max Racing Team 02:15.3 3.726 28 
Ferdinand Habsburg Fortec Motorsport 02:15.3 3.801 29 Tadasuke Makino Toda Racing 02:15.6 4.083
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