Jake Hughes has said he “really enjoyed” the first Macau Grand Prix qualifying session, which he topped for debuting team HWA Racelab.
The German team won 19 DTM titles before leaving the touring car championship at the end of last year and switching to single-seaters in Formula E and FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Its engines have powered seven Macau winners, but 2019 marks its first appearance at the race as a team courtesy of the event running as a non-championship FIA F3 round this year.
“I really enjoyed it [Q1], apart from obviously the red flags,” Hughes said.
“That interrupted everybody’s rhythm, hard to get the tyre to come up to temperature straight out of the pitlane. I think that was a reason why some of people were going off straight away out of the pitlane after a red flag.”
In total there were four red flag stoppages, caused by Hitech GP pair Max Fewtrell and Yuki Tsunoda, Enaam Ahmed (Campos) and Olli Caldwell (Trident).
Hughes was able to set a 2m06.793s lap between the interruptions, 3.117 seconds faster than the track record set by Dan Ticktum last year.
“I had one lap in the middle there and I tried to make sure I got it, just in case I had no more. It was a really strong lap.
“Later in the session I was quicker on sectors but I didn’t quite get to finish it. I think we are performing well: second in free practice one and first in qualifying one. It’s a really strong start to the weekend.
“Obviously it’s only a provisional P1, so I still have to do the job tomorrow. But it’s looking good.”
Macau’s qualifying sessions take place on separate days, with the grid for the qualification race being based on drivers’ fastest times – regardless of which session they were set in.
Quotes courtesy of FIA F3