F3 winner 4

Rookie Victory

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Macau rookie Richard Verschoor cruised to victory in the Suncity Group Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup, after holding off pre-race favourite Jüri Vips. 

Vips had been having a near perfect meet all weekend after winning the Qualification Race on Saturday and taking pole position.  Sunday’s final race got off to a fairly clean start, with Vips out front, as Verschoor snuck up into second place at the Lisboa Corner.

Vips gained two seconds over Verschoor on the opening lap alone, but his early advantage disappeared when a crash brought out the Safety Car in the third lap.

The Lap 8 restart proved to be bad news for Vips. The Estonian was powerless to stop Verschoor from getting a run through the first two corners, with his Dutch rival sweeping into the lead at Lisboa Bend.

Despite piling on the pressure for the rest of the race and even getting next to Verschoor into Lisboa on Lap 11, Vips couldn’t find a way pass, and Verschoor was able to hold on to become the first Dutch driver to ever win the Macau Grand Prix.

“To be honest I can’t really believe it just yet,” Verschoor said. “It was such a hectic race and I was under a lot of pressure. I think we had really good pace, but to be honest Jüri was a bit too fast for me. I didn’t expect to be able to keep him behind. I saw he tried to do one big move and then I had a big gap, but he still closed the gap. I thought for those last two laps he’d be able to fight me. So I made sure I had a good sector three and sector four so I could have a big enough gap to not get overtaken.”

Vips, meanwhile, was left devastated by missing out on victory after a near-flawless weekend. “I’m just disappointed,” he said. “I feel like it was a perfect weekend, minus the Safety Car restart. I don’t really know what happened there.  I think I picked up something on my tyres. I don’t know if it was debris from the crash. But that’s how Richard got close to me and passed me. Then I ruined my tyres by taking a risk. In the end I had big flat spots, I don’t know how I managed to keep Richard under pressure in the middle sector because my tyres were finished.”

 

Raffaele Marciello put in a second flawless drive in as many days to secure the SJM Macau GT Cup – FIA GT World Cup.

Despite dominating in the practice sessions, the two Rowe Racing Porsches driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber were beaten out by Marciello in the last minute of Saturday’s Qualification race, putting Marciello in pole position for Sunday’s final. 

Marciello took an early leader over Vanthoor and Bamber, holding an advantage of eight-tenths of a second over the first four laps.

The Safety Car came out after a crash at Mandarin Bend, setting up a thrilling Lap 8 restart. Vanthoor brushed the back of Marciello at Lisboa Bend as he made a bold, but ultimately unsuccessful, play for the lead.

At the same time Bamber came under fire from Augusto Farfus Jr. who used his BMW M6’s superior straight-line speed to briefly pull clear of the third-placed Porsche on the run to Lisboa Bend.

It was only a brave move from Bamber into the iconic right-hander that restored the top three order.  For the rest of the race, Vanthoor chased Marciello’s Mercedes, but was unable to put up a genuine challenge for the lead.

“I’m really happy that I’ve finally won here at Macau,” said Marciello. “I’ve always been close. I was on pole in Formula 3 and last year in the GT, but Macau is Macau. It’s really special, everything needs to be perfect. And finally, I did it. It’s an amazing feeling to race against the best GT drivers in the world, and to win this trophy means that I can be one of the best.”

Previous Macau GT Cup champions Edoardo Mortara and Maro Engels, both driving Mercedes – AMG GT3s, came in in sixth and ninth place respectively.

 

Michael Rutter (MGM by Bathams Honda RC213V) was declared the winner of the Suncity Group Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 53rd Edition after two red flag-interrupted races on the 6.2km Guia Circuit.

Defending champion Peter Hickman (MGM by Bathams BMW) was second, with David Johnson (Tak Chun by PBM Ducati) third.

The race began with Hickman storming the opening two laps to build a lead of seven seconds over Rutter (MGM by Bathams Honda RC213V), with David Johnson (Tak Chun by PBM Ducati), Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing BMW) and Davey Todd (MGM by Penz 13 BMW) all in close pursuit.

Hickman appeared to have backed off and settled into his lead as lap three went by, but then red flags came out when Rob Hodson (JGH Racing) fell at the Esses and Marek ČErvený (Wepol Racing BMW), who was close behind, could not avoid the fallen motorcycle. Both riders received only minor injuries.

The organizers declared a re-start, thereby nullifying the three laps which had been run, per the regulations, and re-formed the grid for an 8-lap race.

This time, Michael Rutter was the one with the quick getaway and was ahead of Hickman before Turn One, but he couldn’t break away from Hickman, who duly passed Rutter under brakes into Lisboa Bend and started stretching the gap at once.

But the red flags came out only a few seconds later as six riders were involved in an incident at Post 15.   Disappointingly, there was no opportunity to re-start the race for the second time. 

The initial ruling was that the race would be declared null and void because insufficient laps had been completed.  But after further discussion, the organisers instead awarded Rutter the victory by 0.298 seconds ahead of Hickman on the basis of just one lap of racing, according to the official regulations.

 

Yvan Muller controlled the opening Suncity Group Macau Guia Race – FIA WTCR.  Muller started the race from pole and converted that into an early lead, as Norbert Michelisz moved to tuck in behind the Lynk & Co 03 and also repel any chance of attack from third-place starter Andy Priaulx.

After pulling out a lead of 1.12 seconds on the opening lap, Muller spent the remaining seven laps with less than a second in hand over Michelisz, but was never threatened by the BRC Racing Hyundai driver, in a tame opening race of the weekend.

In Race 2, Muller then doubled up on his Macau Guia Race victories, winning the reversed-grid encounter from Cyan Racing FIA WTCR team-mate Thed Bjork.

Muller started fifth, but managed to get his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 into the lead before the end of the opening lap, and was not challenged thereafter.

Race 3 then saw three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx claim his first career FIA WTCR victory, by holding off Rob Huff in a tense Macau Guia Race – FIA WTCR finale.

Priaulx, who has two previous Guia Race wins to his name from his FIA World Touring Car Championship days, set up his victory by passing polesitter Huff before the approach to the Reservoir kink at the start of the race.

While Huff’s Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI was able to close up in the second and third sectors on the mountain, Priaulx had superior drive off the Melco Hairpin each time, and was able to gap his compatriot through the final sector in preparation for the long run to Lisboa Bend.

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