Goethe on provisional pole for Macau GP after topping red flag-filled Q1

Photo: Macau GP

MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe is provisionally on pole for the Macau Grand Prix qualification race after topping Q1.

The 40-minute session began wet, and the whole field headed out on grooved tyres. Although the racing line was dry in parts, such as on the run to Lisboa, in the mountain section it was slippy throughout.

Pitlane position was crucial, and MP were positioned at the end so its drivers were first out on track, followed by R-ace GP’s.

Goethe made best use of that, although had the challenge of being the first driver to check out the track conditions as he had two oversteering moments. He had begun his first flying lap when Ruiqi Liu crashed at Lisboa, the PHM Racing driver being off the dry racing line on the approach to the heavy braking zone and his car swinging outwards and into the barriers when he tried to turn in.

The session clock was paused during the six-minute stoppage, and R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen cannily and crucially passed MP’s Mattia Colnaghi on the outlap when qualifying restarted. Prema meanwhile kept its drivers in the pits for a further minute, seeking clean air.

Seven-and-a-half minutes had passed when Goethe had his second go at starting a flying lap, and he had a big gap to team-mate Valerio Rinicella. At the 10-minute mark the first laptimes appeared on the board, with Goethe setting a 2m32.482s and Taponen going just 0.202 seconds slower than him. Rinicella was two seconds off Goethe with his first lap, then moments later red flags waved again due to Kiwi Motorsport’s Jett Bowling crashing at Moorish.

The next stoppage lasted 13 minutes, and in that time rain began to fall heavily. This meant there was no chance of the three laptimes that had already been set being beaten, and Rinicella was first out on track while Goethe and Taponen stayed in the pits.

There was drama straight away as TGM Grand Prix’s Rintaro Sato spun, but did so down the Lisboa escape road so it did not interrupt proceedings. Evans GP’s Kai Daryanani later also went off there.

Colnaghi brushed a barrier and had to take his damaged car back to the pits, while Prema’s Alex Dunne posted a time that put him five seconds off Goethe in fourth.

PHM’s Rashid Al Dhaheri was next to occupy that position, with Prema’s Freddie Slater and PHM’s Matteo De Palo also beating Dunne before red flags waved again with just over 23 minutes of qualifying still to go to clear Daryanani’s abandoned car.

When green flags waved again after six minutes, 19 drivers had laptimes to their name and the track was even wetter. Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues left the pits and immediately went down the Lisboa escape road, prompting another six-minute stoppage.

It got wetter, and 13 drivers headed out for the next restart. Sainteloc Racing’s Alexander Abkhazava went off at Lisboa but was able to rejoin. Colnaghi, in 26th place, was first to begin a flying lap and would get up to 20th place, while Kenato Le would climb to 17th as the best of the late improvers.

Rikuto Kobayashi was slowest of those with a valid time on the board in 23rd and brought an early end to the session with under four minutes remaining after he too went down the Lisboa escape road and could not rejoin.

Sainteloc’s Theophile Nael and the R-ace GP duo of Enzo Deligny and Ugo Ugochukwu were all placed under investigation late on for crossing the white line at pit exit.

Qualifying 1 results