Slater leads Boya in second Macau GP practice session

Photo; Macau GP Organising Committee

Prema’s Freddie Slater was quickest in the second Macau Grand Prix practice session on Friday morning.

The 40-minute session began with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kiyoshi Umegaki setting the pace, as he logged a 2m21.595s banker lap to lead team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk by 0.008 seconds. The pair would not improve on those times.

Around eight minutes in the rest of the field set their first laps at pace, with R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny usurping Umegaki with a 2m17.960s. He initially lead team-mate Jin Nakamura by 0.579s, then Slater got within 0.303s og him.

PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi was next to occupy third, 0.305s off Deligny’s pace, prior to red flags waving as ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le crashed to bring a stop to the session before nine minutes had even passed.

The restart occurred 16 minutes in, and Deligny led the field out of the pits. When he then embarked on his first flying lap since the stoppage, he went off but avoided hitting any barriers and was able to safely rejoin the circuit.

Charlie Wurz and one of his Evans GP team-mates went off at Lisboa, and when flying laps were finally completed at the 21-minute mark it was R-ace’s Matteo De Palo who went to the top with a 2m17.794s.

His time ahead was shortlived, as KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya went 0.064s faster than him 10s later and his team-mate Theophile Nael then posted a rapid 2m16.955s. But that lap was not to count as red flags had just waved due to Evans GP’s Oscar Wurz crashing hard at Fishermen’s Bend.

Just seven-and-a-half minutes remained when green flags waved again, and with two minutes-and-40 seconds left on the clock Deligny set a 2m16.957s to snatch back top spot by 0.773s. De Palo trimmed that advantage to 0.639s, then Nakamura cut it further 0.614s, and when Boya crossed the line he lowered the pace to 2m16.781s.

Slater beat that by 0.229s with just over two minutes to go, and his 2m16.552s would not be bettered.

ART GP’s Taito Kato and PHM’s Jose Garfias went fourth and sixth fastest, 0.78s and 1.035s off the pace respectively, before session-ending red flags waved after VAR’s Newman Chi crashed at Fisherman’s.

Inclusive out outlaps, the most running done by anyone was nine laps. That was achieved by Boya, Nakamura and De Palo. Pinnacle’s Theophile Nael set eight, but along with Le, Oscar Wurz and Trident pair Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Reza Seewooruthun failed to log any laptimes.

Free practice results