Leon pips Nael to top spot, then crashes, in FP2 at Macau GP

Photo: FIA

KCMG by Pinnacle Motorsport’s Noel Leon pipped Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael to the fastest lap in the second free practice session for the Macau Grand Prix.

Wet weather continued to blight proceedings on Friday, and nobody managed to get into double figures on laps completed, but the majority of drivers did set personal bests after FP1 had been a washout and the first qualifying session had been full of red flags on Thursday.

Heading out at the driest points of FP2 therefore lent itself to being when the fastest laps were set, and a quarter of the way through the 40-minute session it was R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen who led the way. He promptly then made a mistake that sent him down an escape road, and at the same time Evans GP’s Kai Daryanani stopped at the Melco hairpin.

Red flags waved, just after Leon posted a 2m35.772s lap that would not be beaten. He was 0.105 seconds faster than Nael, with ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le and Evan Giltaire both within 0.4s of the pace.

Leon’s team-mate mari Boya and ART GP’s James Wharton were half a second back in fifth and sixth, and Taponen was shuffled all the way down to seventh.

When FP2 restarted, the weather had worsened and there was no chance of laptimes for improving – although Evans GP’s Cooper Webster set his personal best on his ninth and final lap while almost everyone else hit a pace ceiling after lap three – and eventually race control red flagged the session.

There was time for another restart, but Prema’s Dino Beganovic had an off that meant he ended the session with no laptimes to his name, then Leon binned it at the Solitude Esses and all action was halted.

Free practice 2 results