Race details Date 18 November 2018 Official name 65th 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 Dan Ticktum Motopark Academy Time 2:11.004 Fastest Lap Driver Dan Ticktum Motopark Academy Time 2:10.620 (on lap 9) Podium First Dan Ticktum Second Joel Eriksson Third Callum Ilott Carlin Main Race Pole Driver Dan Ticktum Motopark Academy Fastest Lap Driver Dan Ticktum Motopark Academy Time 2:10.246 (on lap 13) Podium First Dan Ticktum Second Joel Eriksson Third Carlin
The 2018 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 65th 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 18 November 2018. Unlike other races, such as the Pau Grand Prix, the 2018 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 2018 race was the 65th running of the Macau Grand Prix, the 36th for Formula Three cars and the 3rd edition of the FIA F3 World Cup.
The Grand Prix was won by Motopark Academy driver Dan Ticktum from pole position, having won the qualification race the previous afternoon. The race was stopped for more than one hour because of a major accident that saw Sophia Flörsch of Van Amersfoort Racing sustain spinal fractures. She catapulted into the catch fence above a barrier beside the circuit and struck a photographer's bunker after a collision with the rear of Carlin's Jehan Daruvala. Another driver, Sho Tsuboi, two photographers and a track marshal sustained injuries. Ticktum held off his teammate Joel Eriksson after the restart to become the third driver in history to win the Macau Grand Prix back-to-back after Edoardo Mortara in 2009 and 2010 and Felix Rosenqvist in 2014 and 2015. Eriksson finished second and third was another Carlin driver, Sacha Fenestraz.
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 2018 Macau Grand Prix was the 65th running of the event, the 36th time it was held to Formula Three regulations and the third edition of the FIA F3 World Cup. It took place on the temporary 22-turn Guia Circuit in the streets of Macau on 18 November 2018 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying.
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 28-car grid for the event, two 2018 Formula Three champions competed: Mick Schumacher, the Formula Three European champion, was joined in Macau by Sho Tsuboi, the Japanese series winner. Other drivers entered included F3 Asian Championship runner-up Jake Hughes, ADAC Formula 4 Championship driver Frederik Vesti, GP3 Series racer Callum Ilott, Super Formula Championship competitor Yuhi Sekiguchi, one-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race winner Joel Eriksson, and Sophia Flörsch, the first woman to participate in the race since Tatiana Calderón in the 2014 event.
Practice and qualifying There were two 40-minute practice sessions preceding the Sunday race: one on Thursday mid-morning and one on late Friday morning. Lap times in the first practice session were two seconds slower than in the 2017 race because of a clean circuit. Schumacher slipstreamed Ilott to set the session's fastest lap of 2 minutes, 12.168 seconds with two minutes left. Ilott was three-hundredths of a second slower in second. Jüri Vips, Dan Ticktum, Eriksson, Sacha Fenestraz, Robert Shwartzman, Álex Palou, Tsuboi and Hughes were in positions three to ten. While the session passed relatively peacefully, traffic delayed some drivers, and Vips damaged the left-rear rim and tyre in an impact with the barrier at Police corner, sustaining a puncture that was replaced in the pit lane.
Qualifying was split into two sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon and ran for 40 minutes with the second identically timed session held on Friday afternoon. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards that competitor's final starting position for the qualification race. The first qualifying session was red flagged after 14 minutes because local driver Hon Chio Leong crashed into a barrier exiting Police turn and blocked the track with his car sideways. Shortly after qualifying restarted, Ticktum and Ilott exchanged the provisional pole position until Ticktum on a new set of tyres emerged on top with a lap of 2 minutes, 11.004 seconds with Ilott providing him with a minor slipstream advantage. With five minutes to go, a second stoppage was necessitated when Enaam Ahmed made contact with the Police corner barrier in a near identical crash to Leong. As competitors attempted to improve their lap times, they were denied the opportunity as Sena Sakaguchi drifted wide and crashed heavily at the Reservoir Bend turn, destroying his car's left-hand quarter as he ended up against the start/finish straight wall. Qualifying concluded early because of a lack of time for drivers to improve. Ilott was second and Schumacher moved to third before the second red flag was waved. Fourth-placed Hughes had similarly improved before the second stoppage. Sekiguchi finished fifth to make it five teams in the first five positions. Fenestraz was sixth after a minor head-on crash against Police turn's barrier and had his front wing replaced in the pit lane. Eriksson and his Motopark Academy teammate Vips delayed leaving the pit lane; traffic blocked them and were seventh and eleventh. They were separated by Palou, Ferdinand Habsburg and Tsuboi. The rest of the provisional grid was Ahmed, Marcus Armstrong, Guanyu Zhou, Flörsch, Jehan Daruvala, Ritomo Miyata, Ralf Aron, Shwartzman, Marino Sato, Kevyan Andres, Vesti, Toshiki Oyu, Sakaguchi, Leong, Ukyo Sasahara, Yoshiaki Katayama and Ryuji "Dragon" Kumita.
It was expected that the battle between Ticktum, Ilott and Schumacher would continue into Friday's scheduled sessions. In the second 40-minute practice session, Eriksson led the first 20 minutes until Vips bettered his lap with nine minutes to go and then Ilott improved it four minutes later. Schumacher then further improved on Ilott's effort with a best time of the weekend at the point of 2 minutes, 10.674 seconds, before a red flag period was prompted for Oyu's crash at Maternity Bend corner, which ended all competitive running with two minutes remaining. Ilott was 0.091 seconds slower in second. Vips, Hughes, Ticktum, Eriksson. Armstrong, Palou, Aron and Daruvala completed the top ten. Oyu also caused yellow flags to wave after he ran deep onto Lisboa corner's escape road and Ahmed (twice) and Fenestraz did the same; all three participants avoided contact with a barrier beside the track.
In the second qualifying session, Schumacher locked his tyres and ran onto Lisboa turn's escape road in the tenth minute, brushing a trackside barrier with his left-rear wheel. He then avoided a crash at Dona Maria Bend after his left-rear tyre punctured and entered the run-off area. Not long after, Andres and Katayama made contact in Lisboa turn's braking zone and both drivers hit a wall. At the same time, Tsuboi crashed at the Solitude Esses and the red flags were waved for two minutes. After the session was restarted, Armstrong made contact a Melco hairpin wall with his car's front. Ticktum could not improve his lap in qualifying's opening minutes, as Ilott led on his first timed lap, just after a full course yellow flag was prompted for Ahmed's spin and crash into the Reservoir Bend corner wall. Ticktum then improved twice in the final minutes, and set the first lap time under 2 minutes, 10 seconds at the Guia Circuit, at 2 minutes, 9.910 seconds, which bettered Marcus Ericsson's 2009 lap record and earned Ticktum pole position for the qualifying race. At the session's end, Sato crashed at Police bend, and Ilott narrowly avoided hitting him on the inside, stopping Ilott from improving his lap. Then, Sasahara hit the Reservoir Bend barrier, ricocheted across the circuit, and collected Eriksson. Vips avoided the accident scene but it ended the session early. Ticktum was joined on the grid's front row by Ilott and Fenestraz moved from sixth to third after slipstreaming Ticktum. Fourth was Eriksson and Zhou progressed to fifth. Hughes fell to sixth while Sato moved to seventh. Armstrong led a trio of Prema cars in eighth, Schumacher ninth and Aron tenth. Behind them the rest of the grid lined up as Sekiguchi, Shwartzman, Palou, Vips, Habsburg, Tsuboi, Ahmed, Vesti, Daruvala, Flörsch, Miyata, Leong, Sakaguchi, Andres, Oyu, Katayama and Kumita.
Qualifying classification +Final qualifying classification Driver Team 1 1 Motopark Academy 2:11.004 12:09.910 1— 1 2 18 Carlin 2:11.136 22:10.353 2 +0.443 2 3 19 Carlin 2:11.707 62:10.580 3 +0.670 3 4 2 Motopark Academy 2:11.732 72:10.991 4 +1.081 4 5 8 SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:12.078 142:11.130 5 +1.220 5 6 30 Hitech GP 2:11.498 42:11.155 6 +1.245 6 7 6 Motopark Academy 2:13.392 202:11.262 7 +1.352 7 8 11 SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:12.039 132:11.329 8 +1.419 8 9 9 SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:11.433 32:11.382 9 +1.472 9 10 10 SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:12.704 182:11.446 10 +1.536 10 11 15 B-Max Racing Team2:11.674 5 2:12.280 15 +1.664 11 12 12 SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 2:13.068 192:11.746 11+1.736 12 13 16 B-Max Racing Team2:11.775 8 2:12.498 17 +1.765 13 14 3 Motopark Academy 2:11.980 112:11.855 12 +1.835 14 15 5 Motopark Academy2:11.917 9 2:12.027 13 +2.007 15 16 31 Team TOM'S2:11.966 10 2:13.137 22 +2.056 16 17 29 Hitech GP2:11.998 12 2:12.661 18 +2.086 17 18 26 Van Amersfoort Racing 2:14.014 222:12.104 15 +2.194 18 19 17 Carlin 2:12.598 162:12.189 16 +2.279 19 20 25 Van Amersfoort Racing2:12.517 15 2:13.641 24 +2.607 20 21 32 Team TOM'S2:12.646 17 2:12.680 19 +2.736 21 22 28 Hitech GP 2:14.970 252:12.943 20 +3.033 22 23 21 Toda Racing 2:14.668 242:13.041 21 +3.131 23 24 27 ThreeBond Racing 2:16.571 262:13.514 23 +3.604 24 25 23 Van Amersfoort Racing2:13.554 21 2:14.659 25 +3.644 25 26 22 Toda Racing2:14.067 23 2:15.026 26 +4.157 26 27 20 Carlin 2:19.521 272:15.681 27 +5.771 27 28 33 B-Max Racing Team 2:24.135 282:21.771 28 +12.861 28
Qualification race