Macau GP News: Winners so Far in Macau
The neon haze of Macau’s skyline flickered like a heartbeat against the twilight sky, casting an electric glow over the legendary Guia Circuit. It was day two of the 72nd Macau Grand Prix, and the air thrummed with the raw symphony of revving engines and revved-up crowds.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
This wasn’t just any weekend of racing; it was a proving ground where dreams were forged in hairpin turns and straight-line sprints, where young guns and seasoned pros alike chased immortality on one of the world’s most unforgiving street circuits.
As the qualification races wrapped up, the winners had emerged—not just victors, but architects of tomorrow’s chaos. In the FIA Formula Regional World Cup, the FIA GT World Cup, and the FIA Formula 4 World Cup, three drivers had seized their moments, setting the stage for Sunday’s high-stakes main events. Here’s how it unfolded.
FIA Formula Regional World Cup qualification race
First up, the FIA Formula Regional World Cup qualification race—a blistering 15-lap battle that felt like an eternity squeezed into 30 minutes of high-octane drama. Pole-sitter Théophile Naël had the grid’s best seat, but it was British sensation Freddie Slater, representing SJM Theodore Prema Racing, who turned the script upside down from the green light.
With a lightning start, Slater pounced on Naël, snatching the lead before the field even hit the first kink. From there, it was a masterclass in control: Slater stretched his advantage to over five seconds, dancing on the edge of the slipstream while fending off hungry challengers like Evan Giltaire and Mari Boya.
“The start was crucial,” Slater grinned post-race, his voice still buzzing with adrenaline. “You’re managing the slipstream, blocking them out—Evan was alongside me, and it was two cars in the middle, shutting down the pack behind.”
Boya, the Spaniard who clawed from sixth to second with a gutsy pass on Giltaire at the iconic Lisboa bend, nearly reeled him in on the final laps, his rear wing mere inches from Slater’s diffuser. But Slater held firm, dreaming aloud of etching his name alongside the legends who’d conquered Macau before him.
Giltaire salvaged third, Naël fought back to fourth with a new track record lap of 2:15.561, and rookies like Taito Kato rounded out the top five. Crashes claimed Oscar Wurz early, but the survivors emerged sharper, Slater’s pole for the main race a golden ticket to glory.
FIA GT World Cup qualification
As the dust settled on the Regional frenzy, the spotlight shifted to the FIA GT World Cup qualification—a 12-lap slugfest where GT3 titans traded paint and pride under the circuit’s unforgiving lights. Antonio Fuoco, the Italian ace in a Ferrari 296 GT3 for AF Corse, had already tasted pole in the Super Pole session, and he wasn’t about to let it slip.
Starting from the front, Fuoco led wire-to-wire, his scarlet machine slicing through the tight Macau streets like a scalpel. Behind him, teammate Yifei Ye mirrored the dominance, locking in a flawless 1-2 for the squad and turning the race into a Ferrari parade.
Raffaele Marciello, piloting a BMW M4 GT3 Evo, launched like a missile from the grid, demoting Joel Eriksson’s Audi to fifth and pressuring Ye all the way to Lisboa. He lunged for second but couldn’t stick the move, settling for fourth in a display of raw aggression.
Alessio Picariello snagged third in his Tempo by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, a podium perch earned through steady nerve amid the chaos.
The top 10 filled out with Eriksson in fifth, Ayhancan Güven’s Lamborghini in sixth, Luca Engstler’s Huracán in seventh, and a chase pack led by Laurin Heinrich, Dorian Boccolacci, and Yi Deng. Drama struck for Edoardo Mortara, whose Lamborghini was shuffled to the back for a BoP infringement and limped home 16th. Fuoco’s triumph didn’t just secure the win; it clinched him the Pirelli Pole Position Award, handing him the prime slot for Sunday’s 16-lap showdown—a reward as shiny as the trophy in his hands.
FIA Formula 4 World Cup qualification
But if the Regional and GT races were chess matches of strategy, the FIA Formula 4 World Cup qualification was pure street poetry: a 10-lap thriller where audacity trumped pedigree. Emanuele Olivieri, the Italian Middle East F4 champion with Xcel Motorsport, started third but wasted no time rewriting the prologue.
As pole-sitter Sebastian Wheldon choked off the line, Olivieri slipped past Kean Nakamura-Berta for second, then unleashed a move for the ages—flinging his Ligier around the outside of Wheldon through the Mandarin kink at a heart-stopping 230kph.
“I thought Turn 2 was easy, flat out on the outside,” Olivieri laughed afterward, “but I ended up close to the wall. Anyway, it was a good move—I’m very happy to win. It gives me a lot of confidence for tomorrow.”
Chaos erupted early: Fionn McLaughlin nudged Olivieri’s rear at Melco Hairpin. Sebastian Wheldon and Kean Nakamura Berta crashed at Lisboa on Lap 1 triggering a safety car to mop up Wheldon and a separate shunt involving Thomas Bearman and Tiago Golovko Rodrigues. They will be forced to start tomorrow’s main race from the back.
When the flag dropped again, McLaughlin hounded Olivieri relentlessly, but fate intervened on the final lap—McLaughlin clipped the barriers exiting Melco, his suspension shattered, handing second to Jules Roussel by a razor-thin 0.094 seconds over Rintaro Sato, who swerved to avoid the wreckage. Rayan Caretti nipped fourth with a late dart on Aryaman Bansal, while local hero Man Hei Cheong thrilled the home crowd in ninth. Olivieri’s pole for the main race? A cherry on top of his daring masterpiece.
As the checkered flags waved and the paddock buzzed with debriefs and dreams, Macau exhaled—a city alive with the promise of more. Slater, Fuoco, and Olivieri stood tall as the qualification kings, their victories threads in the Grand Prix tapestry. But Sunday loomed, with fuller fields, fiercer battles, and the ghosts of motorsport history whispering from every barrier. Who would join this elite trio on the roll of honor? The Guia Circuit held its breath, ready to roar the answer.