Wittmann takes pole position

German Marco Wittmann set the fastest time on his final lap of yesterday’s second session, finishing with 2m12.790s

Signature’s Marco Wittmann has secured pole position for the Macau Grand Prix qualification race after delivering the fastest time in a thrilling final qualifying session yesterday.
The German maintained the strong form he showed in the morning’s free practice session, as drivers experienced dry conditions for the first time this weekend, to move to the top of the standings early on.
However, after 11 minutes, Spain’s Roberto Merhi showed what he was capable of as he moved to the front briefly, before Carlin’s Felipe Nasr then delivered the top time.
Wittmann, who finished 4th last year in Macau, responded with 10 minutes of the session remaining to move back to the top of the timesheets, but he was knocked off the top again by Merhi.
On his final lap of the session though, Wittmann was able to find more time and his best lap of 2m12.790s left him just 0.064 seconds in front of Merhi.
“To do it on the last lap was really amazing,” said Wittmann.
“It is a great feeling to finish first in qualifying, but still we have two long races to go. You can overtake here easily on the straight, but I think we have good pace and I am quite confident.”
Although Merhi qualified second, he will be moved down the grid after being handed a seven place penalty for causing an accident with Felix Rosenqvist in first qualifying on Thursday.
Merhi’s penalty means that Portuguese António Félix da Costa, who qualified third, will start alongside Wittmann on the front row.
The Flying Finn Valtteri Bottas proved that his late arrival at the event on Thursday, following his travels from the Formula 1 test in Abu Dhabi, had not slowed him down as he set the fourth quickest time – which will secure him third on the grid.
British F3 champion Nasr dropped to sixth in the standings, behind Alexander Sims, after crashing late in the session. Nasr’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen was 7th fastest, 0.728 seconds off Wittmann’s time.
Last year’s first runner-up Laurens Vanthoor finished 11th with a best lap of 2m13.973s, followed by former British Formula 3 champion Marko Asmer, with 2m14.011s.
On his F3 debut in Macau, Carlos Sainz Jr, the son of Dakar legend Carlos Sainz, completed only 5 laps, finishing 18th, 1.721 seconds behind Wittmann. In the morning practice, Carlos Sainz Jr. had finished fourth quickest.