UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Keisuke Kunimoto wins Macau

Shock winner in Macau

The Macau Formula Three race is one of the most prestigious event on thecalendar, whether you are are Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Mika Hakkinen, your career has been boosted by adding your name to the trophy every Formula Three driver wants.

Last years winner Oliver Jarvis is now racing in the German DTM series and there are thirty drivers now aiming to take his crown.

Formula Three Euroseries championship runner-up Eduardo Mortara - driving for Signature-Plus -was fastest in the first practice session. His time of 2:14.333 put him 0.748 seconds faster than his Euroseries rival Ranger Van Der Zande, driving for Prema and Roberto Streit - who spent 2008 racing in the Japanese Formula Nippon Championship - was third for Double R.

British Formula Three Champion Jamie Alguersuari was seventh and the fastest runner from the British series.

Mika Maki crashed his Signature-Plus car heavily in the practice session, and as a result of the damage to his car was forced to miss the first qualifying session.

That session was also topped by Mortara, who was 0.356 faster than Japanese Formula Three Champion Carlo Van Dam of Tomâ€™s Team Toyota, winners of this race last year with Oliver Jarvis. Streit was again third fastest, with Brendon Hartley the fastest of the British runners in fourth place.

Japanese Formula Three driver Koki Saga was the only driver to miss the provisional maximum qualification cut. His time of 2:26.492 was 14.076 second slower than Mortara

After the first session Masaki Matsushita from the Japanese Formula Three championship was sent to the back of the final grid. The PTRS by Ombra driver missed a weighbridge check and was given the penalty for ignoring the red light.

Mortara was fastest again in Friday practice. He set a time of 2:13.054 and was 0.117 second clear of nearest rival Van Dam with NOW driver Kei Cozzolino finishing third exactly one second behind Van Dam.

Jamie Alguersuari was again the fastest representative from the British series, in fourth place.

Van Dam was fastest in final qualifying; his time of 2:11.846 was faster than Mortara effort in first qualifying thus giving him pole position. Sam Bird was second fastest for Manor; he too was faster than Mortara and will join Van Dam on the front row.

Keisuke Kunimoto was third for Toyota Team TOMâ€™S and Mortara was fourth in the session but would start third due to a penalty given to Bird dropping him to fifth for missing the weighbridge.

The fastest British Formula Three runner was championship runner-up Oliver Turvey who would start eighth for Carlin.

Mortara won the qualification race, giving him pole position for the main race - the Macau Grand Prix - on Sunday.

He started third but moved up to second when he, Van Dam and other front row starter Kunimoto went three wide through the Mandarin kink causing Van Dam to suffer a puncture. He quickly lost four places before spinning and taking out countryman Ranger Van Der Zande driving for Prema.

There was more action on the opening lap further back down the pack. James Jakes of ART and Brendon Hartley of Carlin squeezed each other against the wall on the run down to the first corner; Jakes was out instantly while Hartley limped back the pits eventually finishing twentieth, three laps down.

At Lisbona, and still on the opening lap, Jules Bianchi had a spin and took out three Hi-Tech cars driven by Max Chilton, Walter Grubmuller and Roberto Merhi. Only Chilton was forced into retirement. This same incident caused another accident at the very back. Basil Shaaban hit the back of his HBR teammate, Daniel Campos-Hull, who spun into Signature driver Frankie Cheng and the two took out the luckless Atte Mustonen of Double R.

Mortara was still second but he slowly closed Kunimoto down before passing at Lisbona on lap seven. Once he had the lead he quickly pulled away and eventually won the race by a little over a second from Kunimoto.

Streit was third ahead of Turvey as the best British driver. Sam Bird was fifth, Alguersuari sixth, Stefano Coletti seventh for Prema. Marcus Ericsson was eighth on his debut for Carlin after Maki, who was eighth, suffered a puncture on the last lap and dropped to sixteenth. Campos-Hull and Cozzolino rounded out the top ten.

On a street circuit like Macau grid position is very important, so before the main event even started it looked all over for five potential winners; Mika Maki starting sixteenth, Brendon Hartley starting twentieth, Carlo van Dam starting twenty fourth, Renger van der Zande starting twenty fifth and Jules Bianchi starting twenty-eighth.

Hartley however, does seem to have some good pace. After his early problems in the qualification race he set the fastest lap, and was fastest again in the Sunday morning warm-up. He set a time of 2:11.071 and was over six tenths faster than Van Dam in second. Colltetti was third, and seven tenths slower than Hartley.

In a shock result in the main race on Sunday it was Kunimoto who took the win, although he had been on the pace all weekend he was still considered an outsider for victory with the quality of drivers starting around him.

He got the best start from second on the grid and passed pole man Mortara before turn one, with the Italian slotting in behind.

Third on the grid, Streitâ€™s race came to an end early as he closed the door on Bird causing the two to collide. The safety car was called to remove the two damaged cars.

At the restart Kunimoto led from Mortara while behind them Campos-Hull took third from Alguersuari, and then second from Mortara when he locked up going over the notorious bumps. With this lock-up Alguersuari also passed to take third place.

As the race progressed both Alguersuari and Mortara were able to pass Campos-Hull at Lisbona on successive laps. They both began to close in on Kunimoto before Alguersuari was given a drive through penalty for a jump start and a second safety car was needed after a crash from Robert Merhi driving for Hitech

The race restarted on lap ten with Mortara on the attack but his challenge came to an end when he brushed the barriers and slightly damaged his car.

With Mortara wounded Kunimoto was able to run to the flag and claim victory by 1.710 second from Mortara.

Hartley quietly moved his way up to claim an unlikely third as the best British Formula Three finisher despite starting twentieth on the grid, and another big riser was Maki who after starting sixteenth finished fourth. Ranger Van Der Zande started twenty-fifth and finished fifth, these three stuck together for the majority of the race and, as other drivers had their problems, made huge inroads into the field.

Laurens Vanthoor finished sixth for RC Motorsport, Turvey was seventh, Grubmuller eighth and Bianchi ninth, these also working their way up from the back of the pack following retirements in the qualification race on Saturday, and Alguersuari recovered from his drive through penalty to finish tenth.

Written: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:44:56