Felix Rosenqvist secured provisional pole position for SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Powerteam after dominating the first qualifying session at Macau on Thursday.
The defending Macau Grand Prix winner and the 2015 European Formula 3 Champion was well clear of the rest of the field during the session, with Carlin’s Callum Ilott 0.822s back on Rosenqvist’s 2m11.841s.
Ilott, who crashed during free practice earlier in the day, was 0.161s ahead of practice pacesetter Antonio Giovinazzi of Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, while Briton Sam MacLeod impressed to place fourth on his first outing with Team West-Tec F3.
Daniel Juncadella, who spent most of the free practice session in the pits due to technical issues, was fifth fastest for Fortec Motorsports, ahead of Motopark’s Markus Pommer.
Yuhi Sekiguchi was the only Japanese Formula 3 driver to get inside the top ten, with the B-Max Racing Team driver ending seventh, just ahead of Mücke Motorsport’s Mikkel Jensen.
Gustavo Menezes was ninth for Carlin, while Alexander Sims completed the top ten for Double R Racing.
All twenty-eight drivers will return to the track on Friday for another qualifying session, with the best time from the two sessions counting towards the grid for the qualifying race on Saturday.
Macau Grand Prix Qualifying 1 Times
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