Suncity Group Formula 3 61^st Macau Grand Prix – FIA Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup, Macau, China, November 13^th/16^th 2014
© Lynne Waite and Stella-Maria Thomas

Weather: Hot, sunny, dry.

Race Report:
At Macau this afternoon Felix Rosenqvist (Kashbet.com with Mücke Motorsport) became the first man to win the big three F3 races when he took the Macau Grand Prix to add to the Masters of Formula Three and the Pau Grand Prix. He came home ahead of Lucas Auer (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport), who battled the top rookie Nick Cassidy (ThreeBond with T-Sport) to the flag for 2^nd.

The initial attempt at starting the race came to grief before it was more than two corners old. Initially Stefano Coletti (Eurointernational) bounced off the barriers on the run to Lisboa, while Auer took to the escape road in his attempts to claim an early lead. In the meantime, Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) and Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) had both got ahead of pole man Rosenqvist but then tangled at Lisboa. Ocon’s steering broke, but the pair continued to Sao Francisco where Ocon was unable to get round, and landed in the wall, taking Blomqvist with him.

Ocon was sticking out across the track, and as the rest of the pack arrived absolute chaos ensued. Rosenqvist and Auer squeezed through safely but others were not so lucky. Jordan King (Carlin) braked and left his team-mate Yu Kanamaru nowhere to go except up. The Japanese went over the top of King, leaving tyre marks on the bodywork, and ended up on top of the wall, just shy of the marshals’ post. And then everyone else piled in, with William Buller (Signature) and Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort) joining the casualty list, along with local hero Andy Chang (Team West-Tec F3) and Hongwei “Martin” Cao (Fortec Motorsport). Richard “Spike” Goddard (ThreeBond with T-Sport) was also involved in the accident. In addition Markus Pommer (Motopark) had a front wheel hanging off, and Antonio Fuoco (Prema Powerteam) seemed to have damage too.

With the track completely blocked now, there was no choice but to red flag the race, round up the survivors and try again. There followed a long period of desperate repair work as the teams tried to effect running repairs in order to enable their drivers to race.

At 16:10, 70 minutes later, the race finally restarted over 13 laps but without Ocon, Blomqvist, Cao, Goddard and Kanamaru. Fuoco opted for the pitlane after the team worked on his car right up till the last possible minute. Buller and Verstappen were also back to fight another day but this time no one was taking any chances. The start was given behind the Safety car, which seemed wise, and that was where they stayed for two laps.

When the race finally went live Rosenqvist made no mistakes and was off into the distance before Auer could make his plans. His plan in fact ended up gifting Cassidy with 2^nd, when he outbraked himself in a moment of over enthusiasm at Lisboa and ended up 3^rd.

On the same lap Colletti snatched 6^th from King and Felix Serralles (Team West-Tec F3), while Dan Wells (Toda) passed Chang for 15^th and Verstappen got the drop on Buller, which should have come as no surprise to anyone. Shortly after, King went missing altogether, while Serralles limped to the pits for a new rear wing.

Meanwhile, back in the pack Verstappen was on the move, cutting through the pack like a knife through butter, first slotting into 12^th and then closing on Pommer for 11^th. He was soon past the German, and after Tatiana Calderon (Mücke Motorsport) for a top ten place. In fact he was so fast that he soon had the fastest lap of the race and only the fact that he was running out of laps looked likely to stop him.

At the front Rosenqvist was still pushing on, but behind him Auer was now all over Cassidy for 2^nd, the Kiwi rookie having to work very hard to keep the Austrian at bay. Eventually Cassidy would run out of luck, clipping the wall with the rear of his car. Thereafter it started to feel a bit strange, and three laps from the end Auer powered through at Lisboa, losing and then regaining the place in a classic Macau move. Cassidy opted not to challenge him again, worried about the presence not far back of Roberto Merhi (Double R Racing), the Spaniard always a threat round here. Cassidy settled in for 3^rd leaving Auer to claim the second podium place.

While Rosenqvist came home to finally win this race, Verstappen was still ruthlessly overtaking, first disposing of his team mate Gustavo Menezes, then accounting for Kenta Yamashita (Tom’s), blasting past the Japanese before they even got to Lisboa. It begged the question what would have happened had he not crashed out of the qualifying race. His final victim was Santino Ferrucci (Fortec Motorsport), a move that put him 7^th at the flag.

The last few laps also saw a tense battle between Nicholas Latifi (Prema Powerteam) and Merhi over 4^th, Merhi managing to keep the Canadian behind him right the way to the finish, the 5^th place man just 0.214 seconds back.

At the end Rosenqvist was delighted: “For once in my life I’m completely out of words. It’s fantastic. And after this year which has been my hardest season so far. Only 8^th in the European championship so this was my last shot and everything ended well. This time luck was with me and the car was quick I’ve been haunted by bad luck but now everything has come good for me. Unbelievable. Honestly I don’t remember what happened in the race right now, maybe in one or two hours. I like street circuits and this is special. I’ve never won the European championship but to win the big ones (Pau, Zandvoort and Macau) is very special.”

Auer had enjoyed his fight with Cassidy: “At the start I was in the middle with Blomqvist and Ocon on the corner and I braked late and I went for the middle but I went too far but then those two crashed so I was ok. I think the first time I braked so hard I damaged the brake pedals. I wanted to finish P1 but I am happy for my team and my family. At one point Nick went slower, I think made a mistake so I made a move but missed out and he made another mistake and I got past. Then I just did my best for the last few laps.”

Cassidy seemed stunned: “I’m very happy to be on the podium at my first shot of Macau. I’m a little bit disappointed at not keeping 2^nd but I hit the wall hard with 3 laps to go. I hit the left rear. We had had the pace but I knew Felix is fantastic at this place. After the mistake Lucas caught up very quickly and I saw Merhi close behind him. But once I made the mistake I pulled back up to Lucas and brought it in to 3^rd.”

4^th went to Merhi, from Latifi, Verstappen, Ferrucci, Yamashita and Menezes. Pommer was 11^th from the recovering Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin), Calderon, Buller, Sean Gelael (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin), Alex Palou (Fortec Motorsports), Dan Wells (Toda Racing), Mitsunori Takaboshi (B-Max Racing Team), Chang, Sam MacLeod (Tom’s) and Serralles.

Fastest lap went to Max Verstappen.

Final Race Results:
1^st – No. 20, Felix Rosenqvist, SWE, Kashbet.com by Mücke Motorsport, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, 15 laps,
2^nd – No. 19, Lucas Auer, AUT, KFZ-Teile 24 Mücke Motorsport, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, gap 4.372
3^rd – No. 27, Nick Cassidy, NZL, Three Bond with T-Sport, Dallara F314, NBE, gap 8.999
4^th – No. 28, Roberto Merhi, ESP, W66.com Double R Racing, Dallara F313, Mercedes-HWA, gap 9.799
5^th – No. 3, Nicholas Latifi, CDN, SJM Theodore Racing by Prema, Dallara F314, Mercedes-HWA, gap 10.413
6^th – No. 29, Stefano Coletti, MON, EuroInternational, Dallara F313, Mercedes-HWA, gap 24.000
7^th – No. 5, Max Verstappen, NED, Van Amersfoort Racing, Dallara F314, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 24.455
8^th – No. 10, Santino Ferrucci, USA, Fortec Motorsports, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, gap 31.081
9^th – No. 7, Kenta Yamashita, JPN, Tom’s, gap Dallara F314, Toyota-Tom’s, gap 34.334
10^th – No. 6, Gustavo Menezes, USA, Van Amersfoort Racing, Dallara F312, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 35.246
11^th – No. 22, Markus Pommer, GER, Motopark, Dallara F314, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 36.576
12^th – No. 15, Antonio Giovinazzi, ITA, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Dallara F314, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 37.319
13^th – No. 21, Tatiana Calderon, COL, JZR/ Mücke Motorsport, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, gap 41.930
14^th – No. 31, Will Buller, GBR, Signature, Dallara F314, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 43.986
15^th – No. 16, Sean Gelael, IDN, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Dallara F312, Volkswagen-Spiess, gap 44.972
16^th – No. 11, Alex Palou, ESP, Fortec Motorsports, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, gap 48.063
17^th – No. 30, Dan Wells, GBR, Toda Racing, Dallara F312, Toda-TRF, gap 52.724
18^th – No. 12, Mitsunori Takaboshi, JPN, B-Max Racing Team, Dallara F312, Toyota-Tom’s, gap 57.034
19^th – No. 25, Wing Chung (Andy) Chang, MAC, Team West-Tec F3, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, gap 1:08.334
20^th – No. 8, Sam MacLeod, GBR, Tom’s, gap Dallara F312, Toyota-Tom’s, gap 1:49.990
21^st – No. 23, Félix Serrallés, PRT, Team West-Tec F3, Dallara F314, Mercedes-HWA, gap 2:14.441

Not Classified:
No. 2, Antonio Fuoco, ITA, SJM Theodore Racing by Prema, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, lap 12
No. 17, Jordan King, GBR, GR Asia with Carlin, Dallara F312, Volkswagen-Spiess, lap 4
No. 14, Tom Blomqvist, GBR, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Dallara F312, Volkswagen-Spiess, lap 1
No. 1, Esteban Ocon, FRA, SJM Theodore Racing by Prema, Dallara F312, Mercedes-HWA, lap 1
No. 9, Hongwei (Martin) Cao, CHN    Fortec Motorsports, Dallara F313, Mercedes-HWA, lap 1
No. 18, Yu Kanamaru, JPN, Carlin, Dallara F312, Volkswagen-Spiess, lap 1
No. 26, Richard (Spike) Goddard, AUS, Three Bond with T-Sport, Dallara F312, NBE, lap 1

Fastest Lap:
No. 5, Max Verstappen, NED, Van Amersfoort Racing, Dallara F314, Volkswagen-Spiess, 2:11.748, lap 13, 103.911mph, 167.228kph