2009 Macau Grand Prix

Race details Date 22 November 2009 Official name 56th Windsor Arch Macau Grand Prix Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance Qualifying Race10 laps, Main Race15 laps, Weather Qualifying Race: Cool, windyMain Race: Cool, sunny and dry Qualifying Race Pole Driver Marcus Ericsson TOM'S Time 2:10.042 Fastest Lap Driver Jean-Karl Vernay Signature Time 2:10.906 (on lap 7 of 10) Podium First Jean-Karl Vernay Signature Second Marcus Ericsson TOM'S Third Edoardo Mortara Signature Main Race Pole Driver Jean-Karl Vernay Signature Fastest Lap Driver Edoardo Mortara Signature Time 2:10.732 (on lap 10 of 15) Podium First Edoardo Mortara Signature Second Jean-Karl Vernay Signature Third Sam Bird ART Grand Prix The 2009 Macau Grand Prix Formula Three was the 56th Macau Grand Prix race held on the streets of Macau on 22 November 2009. It was supported by the 2009 Guia Race of Macau. The TOM'S team were looking for their third Macau win in succession, after Oliver Jarvis and Keisuke Kunimoto won the race in the previous two years. TOM'S did start the weekend well, with Marcus Ericsson taking pole position in the combined qualifying session, but Signature dominated the rest of the weekend, with Jean-Karl Vernay taking the race victory in the qualifying race, and Edoardo Mortara taking the Macau Grand Prix itself.

Entry list All drivers competed in Dallara F308 chassis. 2009 Entry List Team No Driver Engine Main series TOM'S 1 Marcus Ericsson Toyota-TOM'S All-Japan Formula Three 2 Takuto Iguchi ART Grand Prix 3 Jules Bianchi Mercedes Formula 3 Euro Series 4 Valtteri Bottas 5 Sam Bird Carlin 6 Daniel Ricciardo Volkswagen British Formula 3 7 Brendon Hartley Formula 3 Euro Series 8 Max Chilton British Formula 3 9 Henry Arundel Toda Racing 10 Kei Cozzolino Honda-Toda All-Japan Formula Three Hitech Racing 11 Mika Mäki Volkswagen Formula 3 Euro Series 12 Wayne Boyd British Formula 3 Signature 14 Jean-Karl Vernay Volkswagen Formula 3 Euro Series 15 Laurens Vanthoor German Formula Three 16 Edoardo Mortara GP2 Series City of Dreams/Räikkönen Robertson 17 Renger van der Zande Mercedes British Formula 3 18 Alexander Sims Formula 3 Euro Series 19 Kevin Chen Mercedes British Formula 3 Champ Motorsport 20 Michael Ho Mercedes Formula V6 Asia Manor Motorsport 21 Carlos Huertas Mercedes British Formula 3 22 Roberto Merhi Formula 3 Euro Series NOW Motor Sports 23 Yuji Kunimoto Toyota-TOM'S All-Japan Formula Three Le Beausset Motorsports 24 Koki Saga Toyota-TOM'S All-Japan Formula Three Fortec Motorsport 25 Víctor García Mercedes British Formula 3 26 Daniel McKenzie 27 Jake Rosenzweig Formula 3 Euro Series Prema Powerteam 28 Stefano Coletti Mercedes Formula 3 Euro Series 29 Daniel Zampieri Italian Formula Three Kolles & Heinz Union 30 Stef Dusseldorp Volkswagen German Formula Three 31 Alexandre Imperatori All-Japan Formula Three

Report

Practice and qualifying All-Japan Formula Three champion Marcus Ericsson was immediately on the pace, setting the fastest time in the first half-hour session that was held prior to the first qualifying session. Ericsson's lap was over half a second faster than has nearest rival Edoardo Mortara, with two of the three Carlin cars filling positions three and four, with Brendon Hartley just edging out Daniel Ricciardo by 0.019 seconds. Stefano Coletti and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top six. During the session, four drivers hit the wall, including all three Fortec Motorsport cars, and the Prema Powerteam machine of Daniel Zampieri.

The first qualifying session saw Ericsson on top once again, improving his time by over a second from the practice session; but only secured the top spot, after a late crash by Signature's Laurens Vanthoor at Police, brought out a session-ending red flag. Ricciardo was top rookie as he ended up second, less than a tenth off the Swedish teenager's time. Having been usurped by those late runs, Mortara and Hartley wound up third and fourth, ahead of the first ART Grand Prix car of Sam Bird. Despite his late accident, Vanthoor finished sixth, ahead of Coletti, Hitech Racing's Mika Mäki, the third Signature machine of Formula 3 Euro Series veteran Jean-Karl Vernay and Bottas, who like Vanthoor, crashed during the session. Manor Motorsport cars filled row six with Carlos Huertas just shading Roberto Merhi by just 0.027 seconds, which put them ahead of the third Carlin of Max Chilton, the Räikkönen Robertson duo of Renger van der Zande (14th) and Alexander Sims (16th), with somewhat surprisingly, Formula 3 Euro Series champion Jules Bianchi splitting the pair, in fifteenth position. Ericsson's team-mate Takuto Iguchi was the fastest of the Japanese trio in seventeenth, ahead of Kei Cozzolino, Wayne Boyd, Koki Saga, Jake Rosenzweig, Yuji Kunimoto (the brother of 2008 winner Keisuke) and the Kolles & Heinz Union pair of Stef Dusseldorp and Alexandre Imperatori. Rounding out the thirty runners were local favourite Michael Ho, British Formula 3 National Class champion Daniel McKenzie, the unwell Henry Arundel, Víctor García, Kevin Chen and Zampieri, who did not set a time after his crash in the earlier practice session.

A second thirty-minute practice session was held the following day, with Mortara setting the fastest time; the only driver to break into the 2:10s. His lap of 2:10.593, was an unofficial lap record as it was the fastest lap ever recorded at the Guia Circuit. It was more than a second under Marko Asmer's official lap record, set in 2007. Eight other drivers were also under the old mark, with tenth place Bianchi just outside the record. Ricciardo continued his fine form in second, despite not improving his time after a mid-session setup change. Bottas was third ahead of Hartley, Ericsson, Bird and the rest. Apart from an accident involving Chen at Maternity, this session passed relatively peacefully.

After topping the first qualifying session, Ericsson continued his form into second practice, recording the fastest lap in the history of the Macau Guia Circuit. His lap of 2:10.042 put him on pole position, despite hitting the barriers at Matsuya close to the end of qualifying, and damaging his rear wing. After setting the ninth-fastest time during the Thursday qualifying session, Vernay joined Ericsson on the front row after setting a time fractionally slower than his Swedish rival. Bottas lined up third, also moving up seven places from his Thursday position, and was joined on row two by Mortara. Ricciardo wound up in fifth position, after making an error at Lisboa which resulted in his front wing making slight contact with the barriers, and was the only other driver within a second of Ericsson's pace. The two remaining ART Grand Prix cars adorned row four with Bianchi edging out Bird, while the top ten was completed by Coletti and Mäki. Iguchi again finished up as the top Japanese runner in eleventh position, ahead of Hartley, who did not improve on his Thursday time and thus tumbled from row two to row six, as he recorded the thirteenth fastest time in the session. Merhi's twelfth-fastest time put him thirteenth in the classification, ahead of Sims, van der Zande, Kunimoto, Chilton and Boyd. Huertas held onto nineteenth overall, despite only being 26th in the session after suffering from engine gremlins that restricted him to just one flying lap. Rosenzweig, Cozzolino, Zampieri, García, Saga, Dusseldorp, Imperatori, Arundel, McKenzie, Ho and Chen completed the grid.

Qualification Race

After hitting the wall on countless occasions over the previous two days, Chen was withdrawn from the race due to a cracked monocoque. Thus, this left the grid at 29 for the 10-lap race, and Vernay got the jump on Ericsson away from the start-finish line, and took the lead into the first corner, but by the time the drivers had reached Lisboa, Ericsson was back in front just as the safety car came out. Further back, Bianchi rode over the rear wheel of Mortara at San Francisco, causing enough damage for the Frenchman to pit. Rosenzweig collided with the barriers at the Mandarin, which brought the safety car out for three laps. Arundel's Carlin car encountered mechanical troubles under the safety car, after some debris punctured a hole in the radiator of his Volkswagen engine. This left the order as Ericsson, Vernay, Mortara (who moved up despite his collision), Bottas, Ricciardo, Vanthoor, Bird, Coletti, Mäki and Hartley. Boyd moved up five positions at the start, as he was the biggest winner off the line.

At the lap four restart, Vernay made ground up on Ericsson, and managed to slipstream past the All-Japan Formula Three champion on the run to Lisboa. Ricciardo tried a similar move on Bottas but could not manage to complete the pass, and such was his momentum loss, Vanthoor managed to slip through on the Australian into fifth position. Another Carlin driver in the wars was Hartley, as he clouted Coletti out of eighth position. Over the succeeding laps, Asmer's lap record from 2007 took a pounding as first Mortara and then Vernay took the lap record into the 2:10 bracket. However, any further progress for the record to fall was halted by a huge accident that befell Boyd on lap seven. Running in eleventh position, the young Ulsterman pulled out to pass his team-mate Mäki on the exit of the Mandarin, but clipped the car's left rear wheel at 170 mph. Boyd's Dallara became airborne and was launched into a frightening aerial somersault, landing upside down before righting itself via a hit with the retaining wall. His car rebounded across the circuit, and was luckily avoided by every one of the cars around him on track. The crash meant the last three laps of the race were completed behind the safety car, and pulled in to allow the cars to pass across the line without overtaking. This allowed Vernay to win the race, securing pole position for the main race on Sunday. Ericsson was second ahead of Mortara – once he had returned the place back to the Swede – with Bottas, Vanthoor, Ricciardo, Bird, Iguchi, Merhi and Mäki completing the top ten. Outside the top ten were van der Zande, Kunimoto, Sims, García, Chilton, Cozzolino, Dusseldorp, Saga, Huertas, Zampieri, Bianchi and Coletti after their respective collisions, Imperatori, Hartley, McKenzie and Ho rounded out the 26 classified finishers.

Warm-up A twenty-minute warm-up session was held on the morning of the main race. Mortara again managed to squeeze out Ericsson to top the timesheets, with Coletti also being within a tenth of a second from the fastest time. Ricciardo was fourth ahead of Bottas, van der Zande, Sims, Chilton, Merhi and the qualification race winner Vernay. Ho and Boyd did not set times during the session, with the Ulsterman's Hitech Racing car looking unlikely to start the race after his accident on Saturday.

Main Race