Jake Hughes on provisional Macau GP pole with record lap

HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes ended first Macau Grand Prix qualifying session with a new track record to put himself on provisional pole.

The Brit-topped a red flag riddled session with a 2m06.793s lap, just 0.051 seconds faster than Trident’s David Beckmann.

Four red flags halted running. The first came at the halfway mark when Campos Racing’s Enaam Ahmed made contact with the barriers. Though he was able to get going again, he leaked fluid across the track as he made his way to the pits.

Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong was top of the order after the first 30 minutes, though dropped to fourth as Beckmann and his Prema team-mates Robert Schwartzman and Frederik Vesti all found improvements after the track turned green again.

Only five minutes after action resumed, the second red flag was brought when Hitech GP’s Max Fewtrell ran into the wall.

Lap times improved dramatically again once Fewtrell?s car was cleared and action resumed. Hughes rose to fourth, while Fewtrell’s team-mate Juri Vips claimed the top spot, but another improvement from Macau expert Hughes put him on pole.

Beckmann also improved to go ahead of Vips, while Armstrong jumped back up to fourth.

Carlin duo Logan Sargeant and Daniel Ticktum, winner at Macau for the last two years, were fifth and sixth. Sauber junior Callum Ilott was seventh fastest, ahead of Vesti, Shwartzman, and ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard.

Two more red flag periods disrupted the final 10 minutes of the session. Trident’s Olli Caldwell came to a stop on track with just six minutes on the clock, in his first weekend in FIA Formula 3 Championship cars. The session did resume, but there would be no improvements at the top.

Almost as soon as the track turned green, Shwartzman ran off at turn three and Campos’s Alessio Deledda came to a stop. Not long after, Yuki Tsunoda crashed and brought out the final red flag before he had even set a lap.

Qualifying results