Edoardo Mortara will start the Macau GT Cup race from pole position after Audi team-mate Laurens Vanthoor missed his benchmark by just 0.024s as he topped the second qualifying session.
Six-time Macau winner Mortara had set the pace in Friday’s session despite damaging his R8 LMS Ultra in contact with the walls, and had been confident he could go faster in the second session.
However, in a session disrupted by a red flag and where getting a clean lap without traffic was challenging, he got to within 0.052s of his benchmark but could go no quicker, brushing the barriers at Lisboa on his next attempt.
Blancpain GT champion Vanthoor went 0.028s than his fellow Ingolstadt factory driver to top the session, but will have to settle for P2 on the grid.
Porsche driver Earl Bamber was unable to improve upon his Friday time, the recently-crowned Supercup champion setting the third quickest time in the session and falling to third on the grid.
Maro Engel bettered his time but slipped to fourth on the grid with Vanthoor’s improvement. Fellow Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 drivers Renger van der Zande and Takeshi Tsuchiya will start sixth and seventh respectively, behind Aston Martin driver Darryl O’Young.
BMW driver Augusto Farfus couldn’t improve his time and fell from sixth to eighth. Team-mate and DTM champion Marco Wittmann was ninth fastest in the session, and will start the race from tenth behind Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 driver Katsumasa Chiyo.
Adderly Fong and Jean-Karl Vernay will start just outside the top ten in 11th and 12th, with Briton and race regular Danny Watts 15th in his Gulf-liveried United Autosports McLaren.