Trailing at the end of the first qualifying session Edoardo Mortara’s fastest lap time during the second 30-minute qualifying session was nearly three seconds better than his earlier time as he took pole position for the City of Dreams Macau GT Cup race.
It was Lucas di Grassi who had taken provisional pole from the first session, but though the Brazilian himself went eighth tenths faster in the second session, Mortara dubbed ‘The King of Macau’ leapfrogged to the top of the times.
“Yesterday we were quite competitive but there was lots of traffic so for sure more was possible,” said Mortara. “When I came back in [after the red flag] I was quite negative. But then we made a small change and when we went out it was perfect timing and I had a completely clear lap. I improved quite a lot on the second lap and on the third lap, but then I made a small mistake. It was a pretty good session for us though, but it’s only qualifying.”
Mortara’s lap time 2:20.617 was sixth tenth faster than his pole time from the 2011 race. He went on to win that race, adding the victory to his two wins in the Formula Three Macau Grand Prix.
Third fastest man Alexandre Imperatori failed to improve on his first session time, the gulf in time behind the front row men swelling to over 4.5 seconds with both Keita Sawa and Danny Watts – fourth and fifth fastest – also failed to build on their times from Friday’s session.
Romain Dumas, after failing to complete a lap in the first session, secured his place in the race with a lap in the second session to take sixth place on the grid.
Avon Tyres British GT Championship bound Richard Meins will start the race from 16th position, improving his time from the first session, but actually falling down the starting order as others found more speed.
There were a pair of red flags during the session. The first for Anthony Chan’s GT4 Lotus Evora – the Hong Kong driver was one of two drivers not to meet the maximum qualifying time – the second just four minutes from the end when Imperatori crashed his Porsches into the barriers on the Guia Circuit’s mountain section.
