Race details Date 16 November 2014 Official name 61st Formula Three Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance Qualifying Race10 laps, Main Race15 laps, Weather Qualifying Race: Sunny; , Main Race: Sunny; , Qualifying Race Pole Driver Time 2:11.506 Fastest Lap Driver Felix Rosenqvist Mücke Motorsport Time 2:12.944 (on lap 4) Podium First Felix Rosenqvist Mücke Motorsport Second Lucas Auer Mücke Motorsport Third Tom Blomqvist Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Main Race Pole Driver Felix Rosenqvist Mücke Motorsport Fastest Lap Driver Max Verstappen Van Amersfoort Racing Time 2:11.748 (on lap 13) Podium First Felix Rosenqvist Mücke Motorsport Second Lucas Auer Mücke Motorsport Third Nick Cassidy ThreeBond with T-Sport The 2014 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 61st Formula Three Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix) was a motor race for Formula Three cars that was held on the streets of Macau on 16 November 2014. Unlike other races, such as the Masters of Formula 3, the 2014 Macau Grand Prix was not a part of any Formula Three championship, but was open to entries from all Formula Three championships. The race itself was made up of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main race. The 2014 race was the 61st running of the Macau Grand Prix and the 32nd for Formula Three cars.
The Grand Prix was won by Mücke Motorsport driver Felix Rosenqvist, having won the event's Qualification Race the previous afternoon. Rosenqvist led the majority of the main race to become the first Swedish driver to win the Grand Prix itself since Rickard Rydell won the 1992 event. His victory also allowed him to become the first person to win the three major Formula Three races – the Macau Grand Prix, the Pau Grand Prix, and the Masters of Formula 3. Second place went to Rosenqvist's teammate Lucas Auer, while the podium was completed by the highest placed rookie driver, Nick Cassidy of ThreeBond with T-Sport.
Entry list and background The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and is Macau's most prestigious international sporting event. The 2014 Macau Grand Prix was the 61st running of the event and the 32nd time that the race was held to Formula Three regulations. It took place on the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 16 November 2014 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying.
In order to compete in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship meeting during the calendar year, in either the FIA Formula Three European Championship or one of the domestic championships, with drivers placed high up in the rankings of these respective championships given priority in receiving an invitation to the meeting. Within the 28-car grid of the event, three of the four major Formula Three series were represented by their respective champion. Esteban Ocon, the FIA Formula Three European champion, was joined in Macau by British champion Martin Cao and German series winner Markus Pommer. All-Japan Formula Three title holder Nobuharu Matsushita did not enter the race and so the highest-placed Japanese series driver in Macau was the runner-up Kenta Yamashita. The entry list included one woman driver, Tatiana Calderón, the first female entrant in Macau since Cathy Muller raced in the 1983 edition. Euroformula Open driver Yu Kanamaru was called up by Carlin as a late replacement for Jake Dennis who opted to withdraw from the race.
Five drivers who mainly competed in other series outside of Formula Three in 2014 became eligible for the race: Formula Renault 3.5 Series competitor William Buller and GP2 Series driver Stefano Coletti took part in the European Formula Three Championship – at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari round, and the season-closing Hockenheimring event respectively in order to become eligible. while Formula Renault 3.5 Series title contender Roberto Merhi competed in the British Formula Three round at Circuit de Spa Francochamps to prepare for Macau. Dan Wells, a Formula Masters China competitor earned qualification for the Macau race by entering the Brands Hatch round of the British Formula Three Championship, and Nick Cassidy of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 became eligible with his participation of the final two events of the European Formula Three Championship.
Preparations for the race began in July, which saw the track repaved over the holiday season and the catch fences installed. After the FIA's race director Charlie Whiting inspected the circuit in August 2014, he suggested to race officials the gate barriers be moved and increased in size to ease traffic congestion and erect protection nets to protect pedestrians in case of an accident. For the first time in the event's history, the Macau Grand Prix Committee imposed an average noise limit level to a maximum of 115 decibels to support environmental initiatives and reduce residential disturbance.
Practice and qualifying
A total of two 45-minute practice sessions preceded the Sunday race: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. Lucas Auer lapped fastest for Theodore Racing by Prema in the opening practice session—which was delayed for one hour to facilitate barrier repairs at Police corner after a support race crash —at 2 minutes, 14.645 seconds. 0.055 seconds faster than any one else. His closest challenger was Antonio Giovinazzi ahead of teammate Tom Blomqvist, Buller, Jordan King, Felix Rosenqvist, Max Verstappen, Nicholas Latifi, Coletti and Sean Gelael. Cao and Gelael made contact at Lisboa corner and Sam MacLeod crashed into the barrier at Police corner. Wells spun into the wall at Fisherman's bend and Mitsunori Takaboshi stopped the session by hitting the Moorish Hill turn barrier. Ocon was caught off guard by the accident and damaged his left-front suspension by swiping Takaboshi's car. Spike Goddard hit the Moorish Hill corner wall in the closing minutes and prevented improvements on drivers' quickest lap times.
Qualifying was divided into two sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon and ran for 40 minutes with the second held on Friday afternoon and lasted 30 minutes. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards their final starting position for the qualification race. The first qualifying session was delayed by 25 minutes following crashes in practice for the Guia Race of Macau and the CTM Touring Car Cup support races. When the session did start, Blomqvist came out on top with a 2 minutes, 11.922 seconds lap having led most of qualifying, 0.115 seconds faster than Giovinazzi. Cassidy improved late on to be the best placed rookie in third, with Auer in fourth battling Blomqvist early on. King finished fifth on his final timed lap and early leader Verstappen was sixth. Latifi improved late on to place seventh ahead of Buller. Rosenqvist and Ocon—who used two new tyres to begin qualifying—were ninth and tenth. Coletti was the fastest driver not to reach the top ten despite running fifth in qualifying's opening minutes. Following him were Gelael, Antonio Fuoco, Santino Ferrucci, Félix Serrallés, Pommer, Álex Palou, Kanamaru, Merhi and Gustavo Menezes, Yamashita, Goddard, Wells, Cao, Calderón, MacLeod, Wing Chung Chang and Takaboshi. The session passed relatively smoothly with only Cao crashing into the barrier at Fisherman's Bend and Calderón hitting the wall at Police corner. For missing the red light that ordered them to enter the weighbridge in first practice, Ocon and Verstappen were each given two-place grid penalties, and MacLeod was penalised one grid position for illegally crossing the pit exit line.
In the second 45-minute practice session, Rosenqvist set a benchmark time of 2 minutes, 11.743 seconds with around ten minutes to go and held the head to the conclusion of practice. King was nearly three-tenths of a second slower in second. Ocon, Verstappen, Auer, Giovinazzi, Latifi, Coletti, Cassidy and Merhi made up positions four through ten. Fuoco crashed heavily at Fisherman's Bend after ten minutes; a red flag was not necessitated since marshals were able to remove his car from the track. MacLeod was forced to make a pit stop after hitting the barriers on the Mountain Bend. The session ended early when Rosenqvist removed his car's front wing after he hit the wall at Maternity Bend.
At the start of the second qualifying session, multiple yellow flag periods were caused by cars reportedly sliding on oil laid on track by the CTM Touring Car Cup and the GT Cup support races and onto the Lisboa corner run-off area. Auer was qualifying's early pace setter before Ocon, looking to record as fast a time as possible in order to minimise his potential grid loss, moved ahead soon after. Rosenqvist gradually moved up the order before sealing pole position with his final lap of the session at 2 minutes, 11.506 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Auer whose fastest lap was 0.332 seconds slower. Blomqvist in third failed to improve on his quickest time. Ocon and Verstappen's two-place grid penalties moved them from second and third respectively to fourth and fifth. King fell to sixth with Cassidy seventh. Giovinazzi was another driver who failed to improve his best lap and fell to eighth. The top ten was completed by Latifi and Merhi. Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Pommer, Coletti (competing with a broken finger), Gelael, Palou, Buller (ill with food poisoning), Serrallés, Fuoco, Ferrucci, Kanamaru, Cao, Calderón, Goddard, Yamashita, Menezes, Wells, Takaboshi, Chang and MacLeod. The session was twice disrupted: firstly for Coletti who crashed at Police turn and was moved quickly by a recovery crane to allow running to continue unaffected, and secondly for Palou whose crash at the Esses and stoppage at Farway Hill corner soon after caused qualifying to end early with two minutes remaining.
Qualifying classification