Lando Norris put in a storming lap to take provisional pole position for the Macau Grand Prix on Thursday, with the Briton putting his Carlin Motorsport machine on top by more than nine-tenths of a second.
In a session halted four times by red flags – the final one causing the session to be prematurely ended – Norris – who was late arriving in Macau thanks to his presence being needed by his McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team employers to run a tyre test in Brazil that was ultimately cancelled on safety concerns – set a best time of 2:11.570s, although he did his lap with two new tyres, whereas some of his likely rivals this weekend completed their fastest laps on older tyres.
Norris’ closest rival ended up being Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Piquet, but he was 0.912 seconds back, while Maximilian Günther of SJM Theodore Racing by Prema was third, 1.049 seconds off the pace.
Motopark with VEB duo Daniel Ticktum and Joel Eriksson were fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Japanese racer Yuhi Sekiguchi of B-MAX Racing and SJM Theodore Racing by Prema’s Callum Ilott.
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 champion Sacha Fenestraz ended eighth for Carlin Motorsport, while Sergio Sette Câmara and Guan Yu Zhou completed the top ten.
The first of the four red flags was caused when Dragon (Ryuji Kumita) crashed at San Francisco Bend, while Alex Palou hit the wall at Paiol not long after the session resumed to caused the second, but the biggest hit was for Sette Câmara, who crashed at Fishermen’s Bend and caused a stoppage that lasted almost an hour while the barriers were repaired.
Another crash at San Francisco Bend, this time for Jehan Daruvala, ended the session, but all twenty-two drivers will get another opportunity on Friday to Qualify, ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying Race and the Macau Grand Prix on Sunday.
Macau Grand Prix Qualifying 1 Result
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