Race details Date 18 November 2001 Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance 30 laps, First leg Pole Driver Time 2:11.983 Fastest Lap Driver Time 2:13.263 Podium First Takuma Sato Carlin Second Björn Wirdheim Prema Powerteam Third Paolo Montin TOM'S Second leg Driver Fastest Lap Driver Time 2:12.921 Podium First Takuma Sato Carlin Second Benoît Tréluyer Mugen x Dome Project Third Björn Wirdheim Prema Powerteam
The 2001 Macau Grand Prix (officially the 48th Macau Grand Prix) was a Formula Three (F3) motor race held on the streets of Macau on 18 November 2001. Unlike other races, such as the Masters of Formula 3, the 2001 Macau Grand Prix was not part of any F3 championship, but was open to entries from all F3 championships. The race was split into two 15-lap aggregate legs held in the morning and afternoon, with the overall winner being the driver who completed all 30 laps in the quickest time. The 2001 edition was the 48th Macau Grand Prix and the 19th for F3 cars.
Takuma Sato of Carlin Motorsport won the Grand Prix after starting second on the first leg. Sato overtook pole position starter Björn Wirdheim of Prema Powerteam at the start of the first leg and pulled away to win to start the second leg from first. He led every lap of the second leg to win the race outright on his second appearance, becoming the first Japanese driver to do so. Benoît Tréluyer of Mugen x Dome Project took second place and Wirdheim finished third overall.
Background and entry list The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three (F3) race that has been dubbed the territory's most prestigious international sporting event and a stepping stone to higher motorsport categories such as Formula One (F1). The 2001 Macau Grand Prix was the event's 48th edition and the 19th time it was held to F3 rules. It was held on the Guia Circuit on 18 November 2001, after three days of practice and qualifying. Following an accident during the warm-up session for the 2000 Guia Race of Macau in which driver Frans Verschuur's brakes failed, causing him to penetrate the Lisboa corner tyre wall and plough into a truck, killing a mainland Chinese tourist and injuring three others, race organisers installed two rows of steel barriers and improved safety by replacing its canvas and repairing the area's asphalt road surface.
Drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship race during the calendar year, in one of the seven national F3 championships that took place during the calendar year, with the top-placed drivers receiving priority to earn an invitation to the race. Each of the major F3 series champions were on the event's 30-car grid. British champion Takuma Sato, who had been signed to drive for Jordan Grand Prix in the 2002 Formula One World Championship in October 2001 and was the first contracted F1 driver to compete at the Macau Grand Prix since the 1985 race, was joined in Macau by German title holder Toshihiro Kaneishi, French series champion Ryō Fukuda, Japanese series winner Benoît Tréluyer and Australian champion Peter Hackett. The Macau Grand Prix Committee invited three Macanese drivers to compete: Jo Merszei, Michael Ho and Lei Kit Meng. British series driver Gianmaria Bruni elected to withdraw from the event and the Korea Super Prix because of a lack of car familiarisation time and instead tested an International Formula 3000 vehicle. Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship driver Heikki Kovalainen replaced Bruni.
Practice and qualifying There were two one-hour practice sessions preceding the race on Sunday: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. The first practice session was held on a dirty track due to debris left over from the Guia Race of Macau and in cool, cloudy weather. TOM'S Paolo Montin lapped fastest in the final minute at 2:14.510. He was nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Jonathan Cochet, who had front braking issues and was fastest until Montin's lap. Sato, Pierre Kaffer, Tiago Monteiro, Yuji Ide, Kaneishi, João Paulo de Oliveira, Kosuke Matsuura and Tréluyer completed the top ten. No major incidents were reported during the session although Mark Taylor and Kovalainen scraped the trackside barriers.
Qualifying was divided into two 45-minute sessions, one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon. Each driver's fastest time from either session was used to determine their starting position in Sunday's race. The first qualifying session took place on Thursday afternoon in warm weather with a strong sea breeze from Macau's coastline. Practice pace setter Montin contended from the start and took provisional pole position with a 2 minutes, 13.214 seconds lap with less than two minutes left. Sato, second, led for much of qualifying with Cochet third. Monteiro led early on but failed to lap faster and came fourth. Anthony Davidson was fifth after seeking to find a rhythm he liked. Sixth-placed Kaneshi took first from Monteiro until he fell back. Fukuka, seventh, did not push too hard. Early pace setter Andy Priaulx was eighth; Tréluyer and Matsurra completed the top ten. De Oliviera was the fastest driver not to reach the top ten despite a strong start. The final positions were Kaffer, Björn Wirdheim, Enrico Toccacelo, Derek Hayes, Marchy Lee, Kovalainen, Bruce Jouanny, Tristan Gommendy, Sakon Yamamoto, Peter Sundberg, Hackett, Ho, Haruki Kurosawa, Lei, Merszei, Matteo Bobbi and Taylor. Ide and Raffaele Giammaria set no laps.
Ide slid on his out-lap and hit the Mandarin Oriental Bend wall. He recovered but stopped in the Melco hairpin tyre barrier, causing a traffic jam that caught Giammaria off guard. This stopped qualifying to allow marshals to clear the wreckage. Davidson could not avoid striking Lei's stricken car and went airborne. His suspension wishbones were broken and his nose cone removed. Davidson limped to the pit lane for car repairs. Later, Kurosawa removed one of his car's wheels in an impact with a wall. Taylor and Bobbi collided and ended their session early as Yamamoto struck the trackside wall. With less than a minute left, Davidson lost rear vehicle traction at Matsuya bend and struck the barrier. He ricocheted sideways across the track and stopped broadside. An unsighted Montiero then rammed Davidson's car at low speed. Davidson prepared by moving his head forward and exited his car unaided. He complained of a sore neck and was taken to the local hospital by ambulance for a precautionary x-ray. He was hospitalised overnight and withdrawn for the rest of the meeting due to a concussion, torn neck ligaments and a fractured C5 vertebrae.
Priaulx set the early pace in the second half-hour practice session, which took place in hot and clear weather on Friday morning, and he held the top spot until Wirdheim set the first sub 2:15 lap. The order continuously changed but practice's opening minutes did not have anyone record a sub 2:14 time. Monteiro adjusted his car's set-up to set the fastest lap time of 2:13.241, 0.112 seconds faster than Sato, who was quick throughout due to a car set-up change. Tréluyer was third after a mid-session collision with the wall. Positions four through ten were held by Cochet, Kaffer, Fukuda, Wirdheim, de Oliviera, Toccacelo and Priaulx.
The second 45-minute qualifying session on Friday afternoon was held in clear, hot and breezy weather. Provisional pole sitter Montin led early with the first sub 2:13 lap. Wirdheim prepared by inspecting and filming 20 laps of the track on VHS tape in a hire car with his race engineer early Tuesday morning. He attributed this to his efforts to take pole position from Montin, but Tréluyer quickly took it. Fukuda then set a new fastest lap before the session was stop due to Hackett's crash into the wall, which was recovered by track marshals. Wirdheim, Tréluyer, and Cochet traded pole before Wirdheim clinched it with a 2:11.983 lap, which the motorsport press considered surprising. Sato improved from ninth to join Wirdheim on the grid's front row in the final ten minutes, but he did not earn pole position because he swerved to avoid hitting Ho's car at the exit to Fisherman's Bend corner. Cochet failed to respond to Wirdheim and Sato's pace, remaining third. Montin dropped to fourth after failing to regain the necessary speed to rejoin the top three. He was just ahead of Tréluyer in fifth. Priaulx improved to sixth in second qualifying's last minute. Matsuura moved to seventh, as Monteiro and Fukuda fell to eighth ninth, respectively. Kaffer was tenth. Behind him the rest of the field lined up as Kaneishi, Ide, Toccacelo, Hayes, Jouanny, de Oliviera, Sundberg, Taylor, Gommendy, Kurosawa, Lee, Kovalainen, Giammaria, Yamamoto, Bobbi, Ho, Hackett, Lei and Merszei.
Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold. +Final qualifying classification Driver Team 127 Björn WirdheimPrema Powerteam2:14.891132:11.9831—1 26 Takuma SatoCarlin Motorsport2:13.54622:12.0622 +0.0792 325 Jonathan CochetSignature Team2:13.67632:12.2123 +0.2293 412 Paolo MontinTOM'S2:13.21412:12.4324 +0.4494 53 Benoît TréluyerMugen x Dome Project2:14.38392:12.4875 +0.5045 630 Andy PriaulxAndy Priaulx2:14.37582:12.5816 +0.5986 728 Kosuke MatsuuraPrema Powerteam2:14.483102:12.7187 +0.7357 818 Tiago MonteiroASM Formule 32:13.77642:12.9028 +0.9198 98 Ryō FukudaSaulnier Racing2:14.04772:12.9489 +0.9659 1010 Pierre KafferKolles Racing2:14.586122:13.10810 +1.12510 111 Toshihiro KaneishiBertram Schafer Racing2:14.04262:13.68611 +1.70311 1226 Yuji IdeSignature Team—292:13.71512 +1.73212 135 Anthony DavidsonCarlin Motorsport2:13.8395—30+1.856— 142 Enrico ToccaceloBertram Schafer Racing2:14.894142:13.97513 +1.99213 1515 Derek HayesDerek Hayes2:16.039152:13.98914 +2.00614 1631 Bruce JouannyBruce Jouanny2:16.426182:14.48415 +2.50115 1719 João Paulo de OliveiraSwiss Racing Team2:14.529112:14.55616 +2.54616 1821 Peter SundbergThreeBond Racing2:17.363212:14.99417 +3.01117 1916 Mark TaylorManor Motorsport15:47.588282:15.43918 +3.45618 2017 Tristan GommendyASM Formule 32:16.643192:15.48519 +3.50219 2120 Haruki KurosawaSwiss Racing Team2:22.388242:16.04120 +4.05820 229 Marchy LeeSaulnier Racing2:16.094162:16.11721+4.11121 2323 Heikki KovalainenFortec Motorsport2:16.13917—29+4.15622 2433 Raffaele GiammariaKolles Racing—302:16.77322 +4.79023 2511 Sakon YamamotoTOM'S2:17.18820—28 +5.20524 2636 Matteo BobbiTarget Racing2:28.194272:17.39323 +5.41025 2732 Michael HoCram Competition2:18.890232:17.61224 +5.62926 287 Peter HackettCarlin Motorsport2:17.726222:18.07925 +5.74327 2922 Lei Kit MengFortec Motorsport2:23.472252:19.50426+7.52128 3029 Jo MerszeiCram Competition2:26.044262:24.58327 +12.60029
– Anthony Davidson crashed heavily during the first qualifying session and he was declared medically unfit to take part in the race.
Warm-up
On the morning of the race, a half-hour warm-up session was held. Montin lapped fastest at 2:12.836, nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Sato. Positions three to ten were occupied by pole sitter Wirdheim, Fukuda, Priaulx, Cochet, de Oliviera, Kaffer and the Japanese pair of Kaneishi and Matsuura.
Race Sunday's race was divided into two aggregate legs totaling 30 laps. The first 15-lap leg took place in the morning, and the results determined the starting order for the second leg, with the winner starting from pole position. Following that, a five-hour interval was observed to allow for the intervening support races. The second 15-lap leg took place later in the afternoon. The driver who completed all 30 laps in the shortest amount of time won the event overall.
Leg 1