Report
Jüri Vips smashed the Macau track record to take pole positon for the FIA F3 World Cup Qualifying Race tomorrow, with a sensational lap of the Guia Circuit. The Hitech GP ace was the only driver to break the 2m 5s barrier, finishing four tenths ahead of Robert Shwartzman, while Callum Ilott nabbed third.
Dan Ticktum and David Beckmann were left behind as the field set off in warmer conditions than yesterday, as temperatures creeped towards the 30-degrees mark. The duo were stuck in the garage following their collision in the morning’s second Free Practice.
Marcus Armstrong briefly joined them after a tricky opening lap handed him a puncture. Meanwhile, Ilott raced round to steal a march on his rivals and set the first quick time of the day, just under 2m 10s.
Vips showed his hand to drop the time by a further 2s, before Leonardo Pulcini thumped the barrier and brought out a red flag. Enzo Fittipaldi was unable to get out of the way and collected the back of the Italian.
Ilott momentarily topped the timesheet again, but it wouldn’t be enough as Armstrong bombed around the Guia Circuit to creep into 2m 4s. There would be heartbreak for the Kiwi just minutes later though, as he misjudged the Police turn and smashed the barrier, which tore off his right front tyre and destroyed his front-wing. The crash brought out the second red flag of the day.
Ticktum and Beckmann were able to head out onto the track when the session went green, but the duo’s first flying laps were halted as Keyvan Andres got stuck at the Lisboa Bend.
The Iranian got going again, allowing Vips to set off on his record-breaking tour of the Macau streets. The pulsating lap was handled to perfection, as the Red Bull junior deservedly took first place in the standings. Shwartzman wasn’t far behind, but couldn’t match Vips’ pace or precision, as he rounded Guia Circuit four tenths slower.
Having dominated pre-season testing at Valencia in October, Christian Lundgaard had been unusually quite in Macau - that was until the final five minutes of the session. The Danish ace leapt from outside of the top ten and into fourth place, just behind Shwartzman and Ilott.
The remainder of the field wouldn’t get the opportunity to set another time though, as Ferdinand Habsburg crashed out with two minutes remaining, and brought the session to a premature end.
However, having smashed the track record, you highly doubt that Vips would have been caught. The Estonian was followed by Shwartzman, Ilott and Lundgaard. Richard Verschoor finished as the highest placed Macau rookie in fourth, ahead of Jake Hughes, Frederik Vesti, Arjun Maini, Armstrong and Logan Sargeant.
The first racing action of the weekend will take place tomorrow at 9am (local time), when the cars battle for pole in the Qualifying Race.