Race details Date 19 November 2017 Official name 64th Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance Qualifying Race10 laps, Main Race15 laps, Weather Qualifying Race: OvercastMain Race: Overcast Qualifying Race Pole Driver Joel Eriksson Motopark Time 2:10.720 Fastest Lap Driver Dan Ticktum Motopark Time 2:12.281 (on lap 3) Podium First Callum Ilott Second Joel Eriksson Motopark Third Motopark Main Race Pole Driver Callum Ilott Fastest Lap Driver Mick Schumacher Time 2:12.651 Podium First Dan Ticktum Motopark Second Lando Norris Carlin Third Ralf Aron Van Amersfoort Racing The 2017 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 64th Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup) was a motor race for Formula Three cars that was held on the streets of Macau on 19 November 2017. Unlike other races, such as the Pau Grand Prix, the 2017 Macau Grand Prix was not a part of any Formula Three championship, but was open to entries from all Formula Three championships. The race itself was made up of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main race. The 2017 race was the 64th running of the Macau Grand Prix, the 35th for Formula Three cars and the 2nd edition of the FIA F3 World Cup.
The Grand Prix was won by Motopark driver Dan Ticktum, having finished eighth in the previous day's qualification race which was won by Theodore Racing by Prema driver Callum Ilott. Ticktum led only the final lap of the Grand Prix after Ferdinand Habsburg and Sérgio Sette Câmara crashed at the final corner while battling for the victory. Second place went to Lando Norris, competing for Carlin, while the podium was completed by the highest-placed rookie driver, Ralf Aron for Van Amersfoort Racing.
Entry list and background
The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and is Macau's most prestigious international sporting event. The 2017 Macau Grand Prix was the 64th running of the event, the 35th time the race was held to Formula Three regulations and the 2nd edition of the FIA F3 World Cup. It took place on the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 19 November 2017 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Guia Circuit underwent modifications following the 2016 event with several kerbs modified for safety purposes along with the installation of TecPro barriers and the strengthening of recovery protocols for stranded vehicles. After being sidelined by Pirelli for the 2016 race, Yokohama was reinstated as the event's official tyre supplier. Yokohama organised a test session with the 2017 Formula Three aerodynamic package to prevent a driver or team from gaining an unfair advantage.
In order to compete in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship meeting during the calendar year, in either the FIA Formula Three European Championship or one of the domestic championships, with drivers placed high up in the rankings of these respective championships given priority in receiving an invitation to the meeting. Within the Formula Three record-low 22-car grid for the event, only one of the major Formula Three series was represented by their respective champion. Lando Norris, the Formula Three European champion, was this sole representative as the Japanese series winner Mitsunori Takaboshi was not entered for the race. It marked the first time since the 2014 edition that the overall champion of the All-Japan Formula Three series did not race in Macau. Seven drivers outside of Formula Three entered the race through invitations: they were Formula Two race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 competitors Dan Ticktum and Sacha Fenestraz, All-Japan Formula Three national class champion Ryuji "Dragon" Kumita, Super GT racer Kenta Yamashita and Super Formula driver Yuhi Sekiguchi.
Practice and qualifying
There were two 40-minute practice sessions preceding the Sunday race: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. Sette Câmara set the fastest time for Motopark in the closing minutes of the opening practice session with a lap of 2 minutes, 14.808 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than any one else. His closest challenger was teammate Joel Eriksson in second. Ticktum, Pedro Piquet and Ferdinand Habsburg, the Theodore Racing by Prema duo of Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott, Norris, Mick Schumacher and Yamashita followed in positions three through ten. Jehan Daruvala's session ended early when he hit the barriers at Moorish corners and Maximilian Günther lost a large amount of time in the pit lane as his car needed gearbox repairs. Eriksson narrowly avoided damaging his car when he slid sideways at Fisherman's Bend while Norris regained control of his at Lisboa corner. Kumita crashed into the tyre barriers at Police corner, ending the session early.
Qualifying was split into two sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon and ran for 40 minutes with the second held on Friday afternoon and lasted for half an hour. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards his final starting position for the qualification race. The first qualifying session had Norris at the top of the time sheets with a lap of 2 minutes, 11.570 seconds after he improved on his own personal best. He was fastest in the circuit's mountain section but admitted to the press most of his advantage came out on new rear tyres at his pit stop after struggling to locate a decent car balance. Norris was nine-tenths of a second faster than the second-placed Pedro Piquet after he fitted new tyres to his vehicle. Günther was second but fell to third in spite of improving his fastest lap time on worn tyres. Ticktum ended up provisionally fourth and was narrowly in front of teammate Eriksson in fifth. Sekguicki finished sixth, with Fenestraz the best-placed rookie in seventh and he was followed closely in the time sheets by Sette Câmara. Zhou and Yamashita rounded out the top ten. Following them were Ralf Aron, Schumacher with Tadasuke Makino and Habsburg, Daruvala, Marino Sato, Devlin DeFrancesco, Ritomo Miyata, Álex Palou, and the Japanese duo of Kumita and Sekiguchi who both failed to register a lap time. The session was tumultuous and was stopped four times: Kumita crashed at San Francisco Bend early on, and shortly after the restarted, a second red flag was necessitated for Palou who went into the wall at Paiol turn and stopped on the circuit. Sette Câmara went into the barriers heavily at Fisherman's Bend with his car's rear, prompting a one-hour delay before running could resume. First qualifying was prematurely ended with less than two minutes remaining because of Daruvala impacting the wall at San Francisco Bend.
After cracking a bone his left hand, Kumita was withdrawn for the rest of the weekend. In the second 40-minute practice session, Ticktum led the way early on with a benchmark lap time and held it for most of the session until Eriksson had two new tyres fitted to his car's left-hand side to claim the top spot in the closing minutes with a lap of 2 minutes, 12.032 seconds. Ticktum followed 0.110 seconds adrift in second and Habsburg improved late in practice to finish third-fastest. Ilott was satisfied with alterations to his car and was fourth with a late lap that put him ahead of teammate Günther in fifth. After his car was repaired by his mechanics overnight, Sette Câmara was sixth and Norris seventh. Sekiguchi, Zhou and Darvala completed the top ten. Piquet swiped the barriers and removed the car's front left corner but returned to the pit lane. This caused the session's first stoppage as debris was left on the track. A second red flag was prompted when Schumacher lost control of his vehicle, locked his tyres at Police corner and hit the wall. The final stoppage came when Aron went into the wall at Moorish Hill turn.
In the second qualifying session, the first red flag came out when Daruvala crashed at the Solitude Esses complex. Soon after, Sette Câmara crashed for a second time at Fisherman's Bend and this prompted the second stoppage of the session. Ticktum was the early pace setter before Norris returned to the top of the time sheets on a new set of tyres by being the first driver to go into the two minutes and 10 seconds range more than halfway through. Eriksson fitted four new tyres to his car and found a gap between traffic to better Norris's time with a lap of 2 minutes, 10.720 seconds. With five minutes left, Zhou hit the wall and stopped with heavy damage to his vehicle, causing the session's third stoppage. Norris and Eriksson elected not to venture onto the track at the restart after Seguicki ended the session early by crashing. Thus, Eriksson became the sixth Swedish driver to secure pole position at the Macau Grand Prix. Norris was 0.027 seconds behind in third and Ilott was hindered by slower traffic and oversteer and settled for third having been eighth beforehand. Günther dropped one position from his provisional grid slot to start from fourth. Habsburg damaged his suspension after hitting the wall but limped back to the pit lane. Habsburg fell to fifth due to Ilott improving his position and him choosing not to venture onto the track at the restart. Ticktum was bulked by the slow-moving Habsburg but his earlier effort placed him sixth with Schumacher the best placed rookie in seventh. The top ten was completed by Sekiguchi, Sette Câmara and Zhou. Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Fenestraz, Makino, Piquet, DeFrancesco, Sato, Yamashita, Aron, Tsuboi, Daravala, Miyata and Palou.
Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold. +Final qualifying classification Driver Team 1 15 Motopark 2:13.637 52:10.720 1 — 1 2 1 Carlin 2:11.570 12:10.744 2 +0.024 2 3 7 Theodore Racing by Prema 2:13.739 62:10.810 3 +0.090 3 4 9 Theodore Racing by Prema 2:12.619 32:11.156 4 +0.436 4 5 3 Carlin 2:14.688 142:11.245 5 +0.525 5 6 18 Motopark 2:13.317 42:11.437 6 +0.717 6 7 10 Theodore Racing by Prema 2:14.608 122:11.483 7 +0.763 7 8 22 B-Max Racing TeamNo time —2:11.559 8 +0.839 8 9 19 Motopark 2:13.884 82:11.569 9 +0.849 9 10 8 Theodore Racing by Prema 2:14.055 92:11.781 10 +1.061 10 11 5 Carlin 2:13.818 72:11.929 11 +1.160 11 12 16 Motopark 2:14.670 132:11.929 12 +1.209 12 13 26 Van Amersfoort Racing 2:12.482 22:12.050 13 +1.330 13 14 6 Carlin 2:15.977 182:12.349 14 +1.629 14 15 17 Motopark 2:15.416 172:12.558 15 +1.838 15 16 21 B-Max Racing Team 2:14.281 102:12.563 16 +1.843 16 17 25 Van Amersfoort Racing 2:14.347 112:12.644 17 +1.924 17 18 11 Team TOM'S 2:15.085 162:13.604 18 +2.884 18 19 2 Carlin 2:14.868 152:13.710 19 +2.990 19 20 12 Ritomo MiyataTeam TOM'S 2:17.482 192:13.721 20 +3.001 20 21 20 ThreeBond Racing 2:17.992 202:13.863 21 +3.143 21 Did not qualify – 23 Ryuji Kumita B-Max Racing TeamNo time —No time —— —
Qualification race