Edoardo Mortara clinched pole position for the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix qualification race in a rescheduled second qualification session.
Several delays during Friday's programme led to the postponement of the second session until Saturday morning.
Mortara improved on his provisional pole time early on in the session, before being knocked off top spot by Signature teammate Laurens Vanthoor. Mortara bettered his time to take pole position with eight minutes remaining.
A late lap from Valtteri Bottas put the Prema Powerteam driver second on the grid, bumping Vanthoor down to third with the other two Signature cars of Daniel Abt and Marco Wittmann fourth and fifth respectively.
After the session Mortara said: “Every time in the past I have missed pole position, and now we have finally done it. It was a big challenge today and I've had to push with all I've got because I was struggling a lot with the car, especially in the mountain section, where normally it is pretty fast.”
Bottas admitted he was lucky to get on the front row. “I touched the wall slightly, got a puncture and at the next corner I went wide too,” said the Finn. “That broke the car a little bit, so I had to come in and afterwards the steering was not straight. But I still managed to get this time so I am happy.”
The session was interrupted by two red flags. Adderly Fong and Yuji Kunimoto both crashed at the Solitude Esses in the first half of the session. There were several other crashes during the session, with Jean-Eric Vergne, Will Buller, Oli Webb and Antonio Felix Da Costa amongst those to hit the barriers.
