Romain Grosjean provisionally on front row
After the first of two qualifying sessions for the 54th running
of the Polytec Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix, reigning Formula
3 Euro Series champion Romain Grosjean (ASM Formule 3) provisionally
is on the front row of the grid. His lap time of 2.13.329
minutes at the 6.120 kilometres long street circuit put the
Swiss-based driver in second place overall in the 30 car field
behind Estonian driver Marko Asmer (Hitech Racing, 2.13.122
minutes). Third fastest qualifier was Dutchman Yelmer Buurman
(Manor Motorsport, 2.13.405 minutes) from Swiss Sébastien
Buemi (Räikkönen-Robertson Racing, 2.13.436 minutes).
After Romain Grosjean had innocently become involved in a
crash in free practice in the morning, the mechanics of his
team ASM Formule 3 had a lot of work to do to get his car
back into the right shape again for the 45 minutes’
qualifying session in the afternoon. As a result, Grosjean
only was able to start his qualifying attempts in earnest
a little bit later than the other drivers, but he quickly
found his rhythm, which eventually brought him up into second
place.
As usual, qualifying was packed with incidents, although
there was only one red flag shortly after the halfway mark
as Bruno Senna (Räikkönen-Robertson Racing) had
crashed into the barrier at San Francisco. Just before that,
Sébastien Buemi had been the first driver to lap under
2.14 minutes. However, the Swiss was outpaced by Asmer, Grosjean
and Buurman after the action had resumed. There will be another
30 minutes of free practice tomorrow morning, followed by
the second and final qualifying in the afternoon.
Romain Grosjean (ASM Formule 3): “First
of all, a very big hand to my mechanics and all team members
at ASM, who have done a tremendous job getting my car back
in shape again after the accident this morning. Early in the
session, I still had some problems with the balance as the
car wasn’t straight under braking, but they got that
solved as well and in the end, the car was all right. I am
quite happy with my result.”
Yelmer Buurman (Manor Motorsport): “I
was able to improve quite steadily and then looked set for
another improvement as I hit a bump under braking and then
touched the tyre barrier at Lisboa.”
Sébastien Buemi (Mücke Motorsport):
“This was a difficult session with a red flag and so
many yellow flags, but that is what Macau is like. I made
some changes on the set-up as I wasn’t happy this morning,
but I didn’t get a chance to get it all together in
one lap. Anyway, there is still another chance tomorrow.”
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