Felix Rosenqvist secures Macau F3 pole

Felix Rosenqvist took pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race at the 32^nd Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix with Lucas Auer joining him on the front row as Mücke Motorsport secured a front row lock out once Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen took their grid penalties.

Rosenqvist, racing in Macau for a fifth time, ended the session fastest with a time of 2:11.506s, with SJM Theodore Racing by Prema driver Ocon jumping into second 0.332s after a disappointing first qualifying session on Thursday saw him barely scraping into the top ten.

Both Ocon and third placed Max Verstappen of Van Amersfoort Racing both carried over grid penalties after missing weighbridge checks during Thursday morning practice, and will start fourth and fifth, with Auer and Thursday pacesetter Tom Blomqvist moving up the grid.

Jagonya Ayam with Carlin driver Blomqvist was unable to improve on his Thursday time and had dropped to fifth before his promotion to third, while Jordan King will start sixth for Carlin ahead of Nick Cassidy in the leading NBE-powered ThreeBond with T-Sport machine.

Antonio Giovinazzi, who had been second overnight, dropped to eighth in the second Jagonya Ayam with Carlin machine, with SJM Theodore Racing by Prema’s Nicholas Latifi ninth and Double R Racing’s Roberto Merhi tenth.

With Rosenqvist on top, some drivers took to the track with new tyres towards the end of the session, including Ocon and Latifi, but were unable to get a chance to improve their time or position when Fortec Motorsports’ Spanish driver Alex Palou crashed on track and brought out the red flags.

Another driver who crashed was Stefano Coletti, who was on course to break into the top ten for EuroInternational but ended his session at the Police corner, and will start twelfth behind Motopark’s Markus Pommer.

Macau Qualifying Times (Combined)