Home Formula 3Macau Grand Prix Blomqvist on provisional pole in Macau after first qualifying

Blomqvist on provisional pole in Macau after first qualifying

by Peter Allen
Tom Blomqvist

Photo: FIA F3 European Championship

Tom Blomqvist holds provisional pole position for the Macau Grand Prix after he and?Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team-mate?Antonio Giovinazzi dominated the first qualifying session.

After debutant Max Verstappen had led the opening 15 minutes with a series of quick laps, Blomqvist moved to the timing screens and held top spot for the remaining half an hour with further improvements.

Giovinazzi joined him in second place and finished up 0.115s adrift.

Nick Cassidy moved up into a fine third place for T-Sport at the chequered flag, over six tenths away from his friend Blomqvist.

Practice pace-setter Lucas Auer was demoted to fourth, while Jordan King got up to fifth at the end and pushed Verstappen down to sixth. Another late improver was Nicholas Latifi in seventh as the quickest of Prema’s trio, followed by Macau veterans Will Buller and Felix Rosenqvist.

European F3 champion Esteban Ocon recovered from breaking his suspension during practice to set the tenth best time.

However, bad news for event headliners Ocon and Verstappen is that both will take a two-place grid penalty for the qualifying race as a result of missing weight checks during practice.

The first qualifying session ran pretty much uninterrupted, with Martin Cao and Tatiana Calderon the only drivers to end their sessions in the barriers. Both incidents were covered by yellow flags.

Qualifying 1 results
Pos Name Team Time Gap Laps
1 Tom?Blomqvist Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 2:11.922 15
2 Antonio?Giovinazzi Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 2:12.037 0.115 17
3 Nick?Cassidy Three Bond with T-Sport 2:12.546 0.624 16
4 Lucas?Auer Kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport 2:12.621 0.699 14
5 Jordan?King GR Asia with Carlin 2:12.742 0.820 19
6 Max?Verstappen Van Amersfoort Racing 2:12.811 0.889 16
7 Nicholas?Latifi SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:12.839 0.917 17
8 Will?Buller Signature 2:12.871 0.949 15
9 Felix?Rosenqvist Kashbet.com by Mucke M.sport 2:12.931 1.009 13
10 Esteban?Ocon SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:13.028 1.106 19
11 Stefano?Coletti EuroInternational 2:13.066 1.144 11
12 Sean?Gelael Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 2:13.173 1.251 19
13 Antonio?Fuoco SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:13.867 1.945 17
14 Santino?Ferrucci Fortec Motorsports 2:13.944 2.022 17
15 Felix?Serralles Team West-Tec F3 2:14.000 2.078 17
16 Markus?Pommer Motopark 2:14.018 2.096 15
17 Alex?Palou Fortec Motorsports 2:14.411 2.489 18
18 Yu?Kanamaru Carlin 2:14.468 2.546 17
19 Roberto?Merhi W66.com Double R Racing 2:14.615 2.693 13
20 Gustavo?Menezes Van Amersfoort Racing 2:14.801 2.879 18
21 Kenta?Yamashita Toms 2:15.144 3.222 19
22 Spike?Goddard Three Bond with T-Sport 2:15.672 3.750 16
23 Dan?Wells Toda Racing 2:16.569 4.647 16
24 Martin?Cao Fortec Motorsports 2:16.919 4.997 3
25 Tatiana?Calderon JZR/ Mucke Motorsport 2:16.975 5.053 7
26 Sam?MacLeod Toms 2:17.516 5.594 12
27 Andy?Chang Team West-Tec F3 2:17.597 5.675 13
28 Mitsunori?Takaboshi B-Max Racing Team 2:19.157 7.235 8