Antonio Felix da Costa came from behind for the second day running to take his second Macau Grand Prix victory to add to his triumph from 2012.
The Carlin driver had started from pole position but lost the lead at the start to team-mate Sergio Sette Câmara, however the Portuguese driver was not to be denied, passing the Brazilian on lap seven to hit the front, a position he would hold until the chequered flag.
It looked as though Sette Câmara was the man to beat early in the race after slipstreaming Callum Ilott on the opening lap to take the lead, and pulling a nice gap in the opening few laps before Felix da Costa hit his groove, but a safety car to recover the crashed car of Nikita Mazepin, who had crashed at Faraway, bunched the leaders once more.
Much like on the restart during the qualifying race on Saturday where Felix da Costa made the move to pass Ilott for the lead, the Portuguese driver did it again on Sunday, getting into Sette Câmara’s slipstream and passing the Red Bull-backed driver into Lisboa.
A second safety car was needed on lap ten when Nick Cassidy, who was running eleventh having started twenty-eighth following an overnight engine change, crashed at the same place as Mazepin, but Felix da Costa judged the restart superbly to deny Sette Câmara the opportunity to slipstream him and re-pass him into Lisbao.
Sette Câmara then lost second place to Felix Rosenqvist, who had made a move to fourth on the opening lap before moving ahead of Kenta Yamashita into third on lap three, with both the Swede and Japanese racers getting ahead of Ilott on the opening lap.
SJM Theodore Racing by Prema driver Rosenqvist took advantage of a slight mistake by Sette Câmara to get into his slipstream on the way to Lisboa, and made the pass heading into the turn.
Rosenqvist, who was bidding for a third consecutive Macau Grand Prix triumph, was left with too much work to do to take the fight to Felix da Costa, ultimately finishing 1.603 seconds shy, with Sette Câmara holding off Yamashita and Ilott for the final spot on the podium.
Jake Hughes passed both George Russell and Daniel Juncadella to finish as the leading rookie in sixth, with the Hitech GP duo finishing seventh and eighth respectively ahead of Pedro Piquet, Alexander Sims and Lando Norris, who finished eleventh having started twenty-sixth.
Macau Grand Prix Result
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