FELIX DA COSTA TO START FROM POLE IN 59TH MACAU GRAND PRIX

With victory in the qualification race, António Félix da Costa (Carlin) secured pole position for Sunday’s 59th Macau Grand Prix. Felix Rosenqvist, who ended up fourth in this year’s Formula 3 Euro Series, continued his strong performance of the weekend: after ten laps at the 6.12 kilometres long Guia Circuit, the Swede crossed the finish line in second place. Behind Alex Lynn (Fortec Motorsport), the two Euro Series drivers Carlos Sainz (Carlin) and Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) finished fourth and fifth in the race that decides on the starting grid positions for the Grand Prix.

From fourth place on the grid, Felix Rosenqvist moved up to take the lead right after the start, but former Euro Series driver António Félix da Costa soon demoted him to second. There was a hot battle for fourth place, which Carlos Sainz had to defend from no less than three opponents: last year’s Macau winner Daniel Juncadella, Harry Tincknell (Fortec Motorsport) and the 2012 Euro Series rookie Pascal Wehrlein (Mücke Motorsport). The son of world rally champion Carlos Sainz mastered this task in a convincing manner and will be starting from fourth place on the grid into Sunday’s Grand Prix.

António Félix da Costa (Carlin): “Today, it was just about obtaining a ghood grid position, which I did with first place. Of course, I am happy with that. However, the action only really starts in earnest tomorrow, because today’s race was just a qualification race.”

Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport): “My start was really good and I was able to take the lead for a brief while. On the way to Lisboa, António overtook me from the slipstream. After that, I didn’t want to take any risk, because everything is still possible from second place on the grid tomorrow as well.”

Carlos Sainz (Carlin): “In this race, I particularly lost a few tenths of a second in the second sector. Compared to the previous days, my car was a little bit more difficult to drive as well. However, we know what the problem is and we will solve it for tomorrow. The battle with Daniel Juncadella was entertaining and fair. He was a little bit faster, but I was able to defend my position.”