ART GP’s Taito Kato tops FP1 for the Macau GP

Photo: ACI Sport

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato set the pace in the first of the two 40-minute practice sessions for the Macau Grand Prix.

First to the top was R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny, leading team-mate Jin Nakamura. Prema’s Freddie Slater then became his closest rival eight minutes in, with Evans GP’s Charlie Wurz then getting within a second of Deligny on his next lap.

Slater was in his tow and posted the first sub-2m20s lap of the day, as team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri went third fastest.

Kato took over that position 12-and-a-half minutes in, 0.597 seconds off Slater’s 2m19.911s benchmark, and Nakamura improved in fourth before red flags waved due to Evans GP’s Hiyu Yamakoshi losing his rear-right wheel while on track.

Green flags waved again 21 minutes in, and five minutes later Nakamura got within 0.296s of Slater. KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport driver Mari Boya reduced the gap to 0.215s a few seconds later, before team-mate Theophile Nael lowered the pace to 2m19.438s.

Deligny had clean air and when he crossed the line he went fastest by 0.83s, and 40s later Kato rose to second with a laptime 0.204s off.

Wurz later set a personal best in fourth, then Boya was 0.012s slower than Kato with his next effort. Nael, in his slipstream, lowered the pace again to 2m18.107s and the next driver to challenge him was Slater who got within 0.12s of his benchmark.

Kato next crossed the line with just over 10 minutes to go and set a 2m18.804s to go gastest, with team-mate Kanato Le 0.792s off in fourth before yellow flags waved at Lisboa due to Deligny going off.

Slater’s response was a 2m17.450s, snatching back top spot by 0.354s, and on his next lap Le improved again in fourth.

The Pinnacle drivers continued to run together and Boya got within 0.292s of Slater with seven minutes remaining, only for Nael to instantly demote him as he lapped 0.078s faster. Yellow flags appeared at turn 10 due to a driver stopping, but personal bests were still set and Nakamura went fifth fastest by four-and-a-half minutes to go by lapping in the 2m17s.

Shortly after, Slater seta 2m16.742s that put him 0.922s clear. Deligny moved ahead of Nakamura in the final four minutes, then Kato went 0.33s quicker than Slater with just over three minutes to go. Le was 0.831s off his team-mate, but that was good enough for third, as their other team-mate Evan Giltaire took fifth place.

New benchmarks in sectors three and four were set by Boya after that, but when he crossed the line he was 0.171s shy of Kato, while Deligny improved to 2m17.016s in fourth with one-and-a-half minutes left of FP1.

Le went fourth and Giltaire set a personal best in sixth during the final minute, and after the chequered flag Slater missed out on beating Kato by just 0.044s.

Deligny found more pace to be 0.319s back in fifth, with Giltaire improving yet again in sixth to edge ahead of Le.

Free practice results