Ugochukwu snatches Macau GP pole from Goethe in crazy qualifying

Photo: Macau Grand Prix

R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu took pole position for the 2024 Macau Grand Prix in a second qualifying session that ended 101 minutes after it began.

Although the track was declared wet, it was dry in most places and everybody headed out on slick tyres. Several made passes at Lisboa on their outlaps to try to improve their track position, and it looked like the provisional pole position lap from Q1 – a 2m32.482s set by MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe in wet conditions – was going to be quickly beaten.

Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael went off at Lisboa on his first flying lap, with ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le doing the same but both being able to rejoin.

Goethe, as the first driver out of the pits, was the first to put a lap on the board and his 2m23.235s effort kept him on pole for a few seconds.

Ugochukwu beat him with a 2m23.076s, then KCMG by Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya posted a 2m22.377s.

Evans GP’s Cooper Webster, slotted into fourth, ahead of KCMG by Pinnacle’s Noel Leon (who had an engine change before qualifying), R-ace’s Enzo Deligny and Tuukka Taponen, and Goethe’s team-mate Valerio Rinicella.

A 2m22.594s from ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire put him second, ahead of team-mate James Wharton, then the Prema drivers crossed the line and Dino Beganovic’s 2m22.199s put him on top while Alex Dunne slotted into fifth.

Goethe had gone quickest in sectors three and four (out of five) and was moments away from completing his second flying lap when red flags waved seven-and-a-half minutes into the 40-minute session.

TGM Grand Prix’s Rintaro Sato had slid into the barriers at Police corner before his car bounced back into the middle of the track, with Dunne then trying to squeeze past but breaking his car and Beganovic then having nowhere to go as he came to the incident. All three cars were hoisted away.

An quarter of an hour later qualifying restarted, and nobody set a flying lap due to Taponen getting loose on the entry to Police and crashing there. There was a six-minute stoppage, with 28 minutes of qualifying still left on the clock.

Leon set a 2m20.199s to go fastest, with Goethe improving to 2m20.761s and Webster to 2m21.509s.

Prema’s Freddie Slater then went 0.096 seconds slower than Leon, and TOM’S driver Jin Nakamura jumped to fifth before PHM Racing’s Rashid Al Dhaheri went fourth fastest and then Nael set a 2m20.323s to occupy third.

Goethe took back pole with a 2m19.735s on his next lap, with Leon improving by 0.009s. Deligny then Webster held fifth place, then Ugochukwu set a 2m20.070s to be Goethe’s closest rival.

Boya went seventh fastest just before an incident between and Wharton and Nakamura sent the latter into the barriers at the final corner and caused another stoppage at the session’s halfway point.

Drivers got an 11-minute break, during which time Goethe’s fire extinguisher went off and he had a smoking car, and most cars were equipped with new tyres. Red flags waved 45s after green flags did, due to barrier repairs at the pit entry being required.

The next restart was 18 minutes later, and Leon lost his front wing on the rear of another car as MP’s Mattia Colnaghi caused several drivers to bunch up as they exited the pits. The incident, along with Nakamura’s, will be investigated.

Half the field got to set a flying lap before Rikuto Kobayashi (TOM’S) crashed at Fishermen’s and red flags waved ahain with 13m21s of qualifying still to go.

Goether had backed off looking for clean air so did not improve, which cost him provisional pole as Ugochukwu set a 2m19.610s to move ahead by 0.125s. Boya was 0.082s slower than Goethe in third, Webster improved in fifth and filling the top 10 with improvements were Giltaire, Wharton and Deligny.

Qualifying restarted eight minutes after that, and Deligny went off at Lisboa as he started his first flying lap but it did not disrupt the session. However Wharton then crashed at Police and was collected by Giltaire, and there were more red flags with 8m48s still to go of the allotted time.

Al Dhaheri had almost gone off at Lisboa, and Ugochukwu picked up rear-left damage to his car which was repaired during the nine-minute break.

Goethe pushed straight away and moved back onto pole with a 2m19.121s, but Ugochukwu beat him by 0.014s when he crossed the line. Leon, in his repaired car, set a 2m19.298s to qualify third, Deligny went fourth fastest and PHM’s Matteo De Palo jumped from 20th to 10th.

With three minutes to go, Kiwi Motorsport’s Jett Bowling crashed at the final corner and session-ending red flags waved.

Pole was secured for Ugochukwu, while early pacesetter Beganovic was consigned to 15th place.

Qualifying 2 results