Race details Date 20 November 2005 Official name 52nd Macau Grand Prix Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance Qualifying Race10 laps, Main Race15 laps, Weather Qualifying Race: Sunny and dryMain Race: Sunny and dry Qualifying Race Pole Driver Loïc Duval ASM Formule 3 Time 2:11.348 Fastest Lap Driver Robert Kubica Carlin Motorsport Time 2:12.003 (on lap 8 of 10) Podium First Loïc Duval ASM Formule 3 Second Robert Kubica Carlin Motorsport Third Lucas di Grassi Manor Motorsport Main Race Pole Driver Loïc Duval ASM Formule 3 Fastest Lap Driver Loïc Duval ASM Formule 3 Time 2:11.929, (on lap 9 of 15) Podium First Lucas di Grassi Manor Motorsport Second Robert Kubica Carlin Motorsport Third Sebastian Vettel ASM Formule 3 The 2005 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 52nd Macau Grand Prix) was a Formula Three (F3) motor race held on the streets of Macau on 20 November 2005. Unlike other races, such as the Masters of Formula 3, the 2005 Macau Grand Prix was not a part of any F3 championship, but was open to entries from all F3 championships. The race itself consisted of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race to set the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main race. The Macau Grand Prix took place for the 52nd time in 2005, and the 23rd time for F3 cars.
Manor Motorsport's Lucas di Grassi won the Grand Prix after finishing third in the previous day's qualification race won by ASM Formule 3's Loïc Duval. After Duval was penalised for a jump start, Di Grassi took the lead and held it until Carlin Motorsport's Robert Kubica passed him on lap ten. After three laps behind the safety car due to a three-car accident at Faraway Hill corner, di Grassi retook the lead from Kubica on lap 14 and held it for the rest of the race to achieve the first victory in Macau for a Brazilian driver since Maurício Gugelmin in the 1985 edition. Second was Kubica while third was the highest-placed rookie Sebastian Vettel of ASM Formule 3.
Background and entry list The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three (F3) race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and has been termed the territory's most prestigious international sporting event. The 2005 Macau Grand Prix was the event's 52nd running and the 23rd time it was run under F3 rules. It took place on the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 21 November 2005 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying.
Drivers had to race in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-championship event in 2005, either in the FIA Formula 3 International Trophy or one of the domestic championships, with the highest-placed drivers getting priority in being invited to the race. Only one of the three major F3 championships was represented in the 30-car grid. The only champion in Macau was João Paulo de Oliveira from the Japanese series, as McLaren advised Formula 3 Euro Series winner and early pre-race favourite Lewis Hamilton to skip the race and plan for 2006. Furthermore, the champion of the British Formula Three International Series Álvaro Parente had an A1GP commitment in Malaysia. Thus the best performing drivers from the Euro and British series' were Lucas di Grassi and Charlie Kimball respectively. The only driver from outside of F3 to race in Macau was Robert Kubica, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion. The race organisers invited five Macanese drivers to compete. They were Rodolfo Ávila, Michael Ho, Jo Merszei, Lou Meng Cheong and Lei Kit Meng.
Practice and qualifying The race on Sunday was preceded by two half-hour practice sessions, one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. Ombra Racing's Paolo Montin had minor brake issues but lapped fastest with a minute left at 2 minutes, 14.192 seconds. Di Grassi of Manor Motorsport was 0.210 seconds behind in second, followed by Sebastian Vettel, Kazuki Nakajima, Loïc Duval, Kubica, de Oliveira, Franck Perera, Naoki Yokomizo and Fábio Carbone. Most drivers avoided an incident except for Dan Clarke, who was stranded at the Melco hairpin and Cheong removed one of his car's wheels in a collision against a trackside wall.
Qualifying was split into two 45-minute sessions, one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon. Each driver's fastest time from either session counted toward their final starting place in the qualification race. The first qualifying session was delayed by 20 minutes because Jonny Cocker crashed during practice for the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race and created a large dent in a barrier beside the track. When it did start, Duval, who moved from Signature Team to fill in for Hamilton at Macau, was the early pace setter but Kubica resolved a loose seat and car set-up issues to steadily move up the order and top the time sheets with qualifying's final lap at 2 minutes, 12.754 seconds. Di Grassi led for ten minutes before Kubica demoted him to second. Duval finished third. Carbone set a late lap that put him in fourth place. Yokomizo went up the order to claim fifth and Watts finished in sixth. De Oliviera, seventh, challenged Duval early in qualifying, Conway was the highest-placed rookie in eighth, Kohei Hirate was ninth and Perera was tenth. Nakajima was the fastest man not to get into the top ten but was ahead of Vettel. The rest of the order was Romain Grosjean, Montin, Christian Bakkerud, Guillaume Moreau, Bruno Senna, Daisuke Ikeda, Kimball, Karl Reindler, Taku Bamba, Clarke, Filip Salaquarda, Ávila, Ho, Stephen Jelley, Lei, Merszei, Cheong and Steven Kane who set just one timed lap due to an oil leak. Qualifying was briefly halted by yellow flags after Cheong collided with the wall at San Francisco Bend turn and Nakajima removed his front suspension at Moorish Hill corner.
Perera was ordered to meet the stewards after qualifying for missing the red light signal instructing him to enter the weighbridge. All of his lap times were deleted. De Oliviera traded the top spot with several drivers during the second half-hour practice session, eventually lapping fastest with a time of 2 minutes, 12.708 seconds with 16 minutes remaining. Conway continued to improve his pace by going second quickest and was a little more than four-hundredths of a second slower than de Oliviera. Duval, Kubica, Perera, di Grassi, Yokomizo, Clarke, Kimball and Montin were in positions four to ten. Officials stopped practice with five minutes left due to two concurrent accidents. Bakkerud spun backwards into the Dona Maria Bend corner tyre wall and Senna struck the barrier, removing his car's right-hand wheel on the drive down the hill leaving Teddy Yip Bend corner. Kane ended the session early after hitting the Moorish Hill barrier.
The second qualifying session was stopped early on when Carbone entered the start/finish line straight too fast, glanced a barrier at the exit of the Reservoir Bend corner, and was stranded in the centre of the track. Almost immediately after the restart, a multi-car collision between Clarke, Salaquarda and Moreau at Police Bend turn prompted a second red flag, and a third was prompted by Kimball, whose spin at the same corner made the track impassable. The last stoppage came when de Oliviera crashed into a wall. Kubica held pole position early on until Duval took it with eleven minutes remaining and maintained it until the end of qualifying with a new unofficial lap record of 2 minutes, 11.348 seconds. Di Grassi qualified second with a last-minute lap despite the lack of a slipstream on the main straight. Kubica improved his lap but fell to third, while Conway gained four places to fourth despite a crash into the Police Bend barrier soon after. Perera took fifth and Montin gained eight places to join him provisionally on the grid's third row. De Oliviera maintained seventh, Nakajima moved to eighth and his teammate Carbone and Moreau completed the top ten qualifiers. Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Yokomizo, Vettel, Kimball, Watts, Bakkerud, Hirate, Reindler, Bamba, Clarke, Grosjean, Jelley, Senna, Ikeda, Kane, Ávila, Salaquarda, Ho, Cheong, Lei and Merszei. After the session, the stewards ruled that di Grassi, Perera, and Reindler had not slowed sufficiently under yellow flag conditions for de Oliviera's crash and deleted their two quickest qualifying laps.
Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold. +Final qualifying classification Driver Team 1 1 Loïc DuvalASM Formule 3 2:13.114 32:11.348 1 1 2 8 Lucas di GrassiManor Motorsport 2:13.081 22:11.913 2 +0.565 4 3 5 Robert KubicaCarlin Motorsport 2:12.754 12:12.163 3 +0.815 2 4 9 Mike ConwayManor Motorsport 2:14.422 82:12.454 4 +0.906 3 5 11 Franck PereraPrema Powerteam 2:14.665 102:13.228 5 +1.880 21 6 19 Paolo MontinOmbra Racing 2:14.930 142:13.236 6 +1.888 5 7 3 João Paulo de OliveiraTOM'S 2:14.246 72:13.247 7 +1.899 6 8 4 Kazuki NakajimaTOM'S 2:14.701 112:13.273 8 +1.925 7 9 16 Fábio CarboneSignature2:13.306 4 2:14.806 9 +1.958 8 10 15 Guillaume MoreauSignature-Plus 2:15.037 162:13.337 10 +1.989 9 11 10 Naoki Yokomizo ThreeBond Racing 2:13.830 52:13.515 11 +2.167 10 12 2 Sebastian VettelASM Formule 3 2:14.800 122:13.593 12 +2.245 11 13 6 Charlie KimballCarlin Motorsport 2:16.182 192:14.000 13 +2.652 12 14 24 Danny Watts Team Midland Euroseries 2:14.066 62:14.031 14 +2.683 13 15 7 Christian BakkerudCarlin Motorsport 2:14.952 152:14.127 15 +2.779 14 16 20 Kohei HirateTeam Rosberg 2:14.591 92:14.280 16 +2.932 15 17 30 Karl ReindlerAlan Docking Racing 2:16.327 202:14.283 17 +2.935 18 18 27 Taku Bamba Now Motor Sports 2:16.552 212:14.728 18 +3.380 16 19 12 Dan ClarkePrema Powerteam 2:17.125 222:14.768 19 +3.420 17 20 14 Romain GrosjeanSignature-Plus2:14.847 13 2:15.068 20 +3.499 19 21 22 Stephen JelleyMenu F3 Motorsport 2:18.700 262:15.083 21 +3.735 20 22 28 Bruno SennaDouble R Racing2:15.520 17 2:17.461 22 +4.172 22 23 26 Daisuke Ikeda ZAP Speed 2:16.021 182:15.891 23 +4.543 23 24 21 Steven KanePromatecme F3 2:26.409 302:16.052 24 +4.704 24 25 18 Rodolfo Ávila HBR Motorsport 2:17.847 242:17.219 25 +5.871 25 26 17 Filip Salaquarda HBR Motorsport 2:17.588 232:17.574 26 +6.226 26 27 23 Michael Ho Team Midland Euroseries 2:18.662 252:18.117 27 +6.769 27 28 32 Lou Meng Cheong Edenbridge Racing 2:24.588 292:19.887 28 +8.539 28 29 33 Lei Kit MengSwiss Racing Team2:22.497 27 2:22.670 29 +11.149 29 30 29 Jo MerszeiJo Merszei2:24.177 28 2:27.415 30 +12.829 30
– Franck Perera had his fastest two lap times from the first qualifying session invalidated for missing the weighbridge. – Lucas di Grassi, Franck Perera and Karl Reindler had their two best lap times in the second qualification session deleted for failing to slow under yellow flag conditions.
Warm-up one A 20-minute warm-up session was held on the morning of the qualifying race. Perera continued go quicker with the session's fastest lap of 2 minutes, 13.185 seconds. Montin's fastest lap was 0.308 seconds slower in second. Conway, Duval, Carbone, Yokomizo, Kubica, Vettel, de Oliviera and Hirate followed in positions three through ten.
Qualification race