61th. MACAU GRANDPRIX Thursday Report

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Macau Road Sport Challenge

The “Macau Road Sport Challenge” practice session started at 10am with a Nissan GT-R, Mitsubishi Lancer, Lexus IS F, as well as Mercedes-Benz and Lotus. Overall, a large number of sports cars gathered together from all over the world. 23 out of the 36 cars raced using YOKOHAMA Tires.

6 minutes after the start, Akira Iida driving Lexus IS F crashed into the tire barrier at the Police Corner on the mountain side. The session continued. In the early stages of the race, a Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) (LEI Kit Meng) and a Lancer Evolution 9 (YAM Chi Yuen) battled for the top position.

17 minutes from the start, LENOG Ian Veng marked the fastest lap at 2’41″831, however the Lancer Evolution 10 (YAM Chi Yuen) set a new record at 2’40″695 at 10:20am. Two minutes after that lap, third sitter YAM Chi Yuen’s Lancer had some trouble and stopped on the course. The red flag came out for the safety.

After the race was restarted, Tatsuya Tanigawa, Mazda RX-8 took the lead with 2’39″650 at 10:35am. However WONG Wan Long, Lancer Evolution 10, timed up with the fastest time at 2’38″126 when the session was ended in 3 minutes. LO Kai Fung, Lancer Evolution 7, was second place and Tatsuya Tanigawa was third. All the top three machines wore YOKOHAMA tires.

Macau GT Cup

The “Macau GT Cup” was the final event of YOKOHAMA One-Make GT ASIA Finals. Many drivers from high-level touring car races such as DTM and Porsche Super Cup were registered as spot appearances. In total, 36 machines were gathered into this category, 30 of which were wearing YOKOHAMA Tires.

The first practice session began from 12:35pm, however 9 minutes after the start, a crash occurred on the mountain side, and the red flag came out again. At this point Maro ENGEL, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 marked 2’24″623 in third, and Renger VAN DER ZANDE, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, was in forth.

The session restarted at 12:55pm with 10 minutes remaining. With 4 minutes to go, Maro ENGEL marked 2’20″976 and took the lead. ENGEL marked the fastest lap time of the session and beat other brand tire users. Renger VAN DER ZANDE, another YOKOHAMA Tire user, took the chequers in 4th place.

Macau Touring Car Cup

“CTM Macau Touring Car Cup” is features compact sports cars like Mini Cooper, Peugeot and Ford. Despite tire regulations in this category, the vast majority of machines in this category are using YOKOHAMA tires, 30 out of 34.

The practice session was started at 1:15pm with about a 20 minute delay. 9 minutes from the start, YAN Cheuk Wai, Peugeot RCZ, marked 2’51″066 and became the class leader, marking his fastest lap at 2’50″543 at 1:35pm.

YAN Cheuk Wai marked another top lap time again at 2’48″047, and led the session with a 2 second lead on the next place sitter Charoensukhawatana NATTAVUDE. Unfortunately, another crash occurred at the Melco Hairpin curve with 5 minutes remaining. The session was interrupted by the red flag, and finished without restarting. This left YAN Cheuk Wai in first, Charoensukhawatana NATTAVUDE in second and CHOU Keng Kuan in third. Al most of all top drivers are using YOKOHAMA tires there.

WTCC (FIA World Touring Car Championship)

This Grand Prix is the last event of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) series in which YOKOHAMA tire supplied control tires. As the first day of the Grand Prix, a test session was held in the morning and the first free practice session was held Thursday afternoon.

At 7:15am with overcast skies, a 25 minute test session was held as the first session of the Macau Grand Prix. TC1 is a newly introduced machine for this category and is debuting at the Macau Grand Prix. Its session went off without any major incident. Citroen (which is about to hold the season championship) and Honda battled for the starting grid. Yvan Muller, Citroen, marked the fastest lap in the last 2 minutes, however Norbert Michelisz, Honda Civic, won this battle at 2’27″708 in the final lap of the session.

The first practice session was scheduled for 30 minutes starting from 1:55pm. However, because of the red flag interruptions in other sessions, the start was delayed till 2:08pm.

In this session, Pepe Oriola, Chevrolet, marked faster than 2’30” as the first driver in this session. Gabriele Tarquini, Norbert Michelisz and Pepe Oriola followed. However Hugo Valente crashed on the mountain side at 2:15pm and the session was flagged out soon after.

At 2:24pm, the session was restarted with 22 minutes remaining. Tiago MONTEIRO, Honda, Norbert Michelisz, Honda, and this year’s championship holder, Jose Maria Lopez, Ctroen, blasted the top time during the session. The top time was Gabriele TARQUINI marking 2’27″216 at 2:37pm. Tiago MONTEIRO followed in second place. Honda finished in 1-2 and Jose Maria Lopez, Citroen, in third.

Formula3 Macau Grand Prix

YOKOHAMA supplied control tires to all machines in this category, and every country’s top F3 contenders joined the “Suncity Group Formula3 Macau Grand Prix”. It began with 40 minutes of free practice with 1st qualifications held in the afternoon.

The first free practice was started at 11:45 with a 50 minute delay due to restoration of the tire barrier. Max VERSTAPPEN started the time attack, and within five minutes the top drivers’ attack time was around 2’18”. Antonio GIOVANAZZI marked the fastest time thus far with 2’16″514 at 11:56am.

However Lucas AUER set the fastest lap at 2’16″468 at 12:01pm, then rewrote his fastest lap again at 2’15″334. The fastest lap overall was marked by Tom BLOMQVIST at 2’12″835. Unfortunately another crash occurred on the mountain side, and the race was interrupted by the red flag again at 12:12pm. After the race was restarted, Lucas AUER marked the fastest lap in this session at 12’14″645.

Under a continuously cloudy sky, the first qualifying session started from 3:25pm. We had a stable session without any red flag interruptions.

Max VERSTAPPEN marked a 2’14” lap time in the early stage but he continuously fought lap by lap, recording his fastest lap and his best time at 2’11″922. Lucas AUER followed up marking his fastest lap with 2’12″788 at 3:41pm. Then finally Tom BLOMQVIST marked his fastest lap time at this point at 2’12″578.

Tom BLOMQVIST marked 2’11″922 in the end of the first qualifying session with the fastest lap time. Antonio GIOVANAZZI followed in second. Nick CASSIDY placed in third, marking his own best time in the end of the qualifying session in his first appearance at the Macau Grand Prix.

We have the second free practice and the second qualifications tomorrow. The Saturday Qualification Race grid will be determined by the lap time from the first and the second qualification results.