61th. MACAU GRANDPRIX Saturday Report

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Macau Road Sport Challenge

In the “Macau Road Sport Challenge”, YOKOHAMA Tire users dominated the top 3 positions in each of the Qualification rounds yesterday. 32 machines showed up for the fierce battle of the final.

The Formation Lap for the 10-lap final race started on time at 9:50am. As soon as the red signal cleared, second sitter LEONG Ian Veng, Lancer EVO9, leaped ahead, reaching the first corner before the top-starting WONG Wan Long, Lancer EVO10. WONG’s bad luck continued, and he got passed by another machine and dropped down to the third.

LEONG kept up his lead in front, claiming the fastest lap at 2’33″732 in the 5th. However, while entering Lisboa Bend, his engine blew up on him. This left the course covered in oil, and the machine behind him flew into the bend losing control and crashing too. The Safety car drove in to the course to control the race.

The Safety car left the course at the end of the 8th lap, and the race was restarted. WONG had taken the lead after the accident, but was hard pressed to keep it, being closely followed by LO Kai Fung. Yet another crash occurred on the final curve and again safety car came in to control the scene, remaining until the end of the race.

WONG won the race and LO came in second. Another one-two finish from the 20 YOKOHAMA tire users.

Macau GT Cup

The Macau GT Cup was held as the GT ASIA Final as YOKOHAMA One-Make, finishing its 1st Qualifying session yesterday. The final race grid would be determined by the results of the 2nd Qualifier, to be held today.

The 2nd Qualifier started from 12:50pm with a 30 minute session under the Macau’s sunny skies.

Each machine joined the course and after they had all finished their first time trials, there was a crash at the Melco Hairpin. Even though the other drivers behind the crash couldn’t go through after the accident, another crash occurred in the rear end of the traffic, leaving engine and the radiator oil on the circuit. The race was red flagged.

After cleaning up the course, the session restarted at 1:15pm with 19 minutes to go. Unfortunately, the course condition were so bad that only a few machines could finished their time trial. By the end of the session, there had been another crash at Fisherman’s Bend at 1:30pm. Fluids again leaked from the damaged machine and the qualification was called with a red flag.

As a result, Maro ENGEL, in a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 with YOKOHAMA tires, took forth place. Renger VAN DER ZANDE and Takeshi TSUCHIYA, both driving Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s finished in sixth and seventh respectively.

The final race with 12 laps will start at 9:00am tomorrow.

Macau Touring Car Cup

The “CTM Macau Touring Car Cup” category has 25 machines in the tire competition, 23 of which are YOKOHAMA users. The 12-lap final started at 11:20am.

Pole sitter YAN Cheuk Wai got off to a quick start, followed by Charoensukhawatana NATTAVUDE in second place from the qualifying round yesterday. CHOU Keng Kuan pushed hard to make third place, up from eighth at Lisboa Bend. After the first lap, all of the top 4 machines at this point are Peugeot RCZ.

Patric CHAN went up to third on the sea side after his second lap, but he clipped the mountainside tire barrier and lost control, allowing CHOU to take his position in third. CHOU pushed hard to get behind NATTAVUDE, the car in front of him. These two fought fiercely tale-to-nose, culminating in a minor collision in the fifth lap on the mountain side. The collision caused CHOU to pit in, and he wasn’t able to rejoin the race, retiring for the event. NATTAVUDE stayed in the race but dropped back to third.

NATTAVUDE passed CHAN and went up to second, gunning for the lead. However YAN was racing like a bullet. In the end, NATTAVUDE couldn’t catch up to him and saw the checker before he was able to make a move. YAN made pole to win leaving NATTAVUDE and CHAN to get podium finishes.

In fact, Peugeot RCZ swept the whole podium, all with YOKOHAMA tires.

Formula3 Macau Grand Prix

YOKOHAMA Tire supplied control tires to all machines in the “Suncity Group Formula3 Macau Grand Prix”. This race had a Provisional Classification with 10 laps to determine grid position for tomorrow’s final.

The formation lap for the Provisional Classification started at 2:20pm. Pole sitter Felix ROSENQVIST got off to a great start but was passed on the seaside course near the Mandarin Oriental Bend by Lucas AUER, who had started from the second grid. Max VERSTAPPEN was pressing hard to pass ROSENQVIST and climbed up to take second position at Lisboa Bend.

When AUER opened up the lead in the fourth lap after he took the lead, Max VERSTAPPEN who was fiercely pressing hard on ROSENQVIST, and other machine crashed on the mountain side, then the safety car again entered the course.

While the safety car led the pace, AUER lost his lead and ROSENQVIST, in second at the time, dashed in to overtake him. As he passed AUER, he grabbed a slipstream on the sea side after the race had restarted the race in 8th lap, taking the lead. He kept the lead and finished the Qualifier in first. AUER finished in second and Tom BLOMQVIST in third. With the Qualifying Race in the bag, the top ranks of tomorrow’s Final race will be similar with today’s result.