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Hitech Racing started its bid for Macau Grand Prix victory
in the best possible way today with Marko Asmer taking a front row spot ahead
of this weekend’s event despite a brush with the wall in the crucial
qualifying session. The Estonian was quickest of all the F3 runners from
across Europe, just being pipped to the pole
position he provisionally held yesterday by British A1GP driver Oliver Jarvis.
Twenty-three year-old Asmer. who dominated the Lloyds TSB
Insurance British F3 International Series title this year winning half the 22
races improved his time from yesterday and wound up less than two tenths off
the pole time. However, on his first run on new tyres, Marko like many others,
clipped the wall damaging the front and rear trackrods on one side of his car dropping
him down to sixth.
A sterling job by the Hitech mechanics though saw them
able to replace one of the damaged trackrods but with the session time ticking
away, sent their young charge back out where a stunning performance saw him go
from sixth to second, just 0.192 seconds off pole. ”For sure without that
brush with the wall, Marko would have been able to keep the pole position he
achieved yesterday”, said Hitech Team Principal David Hayle.
“We were able to change one trackrod but time was
running out and so we sent him back out to see if he could improve and once
again, he didn’t disappoint. There is no question he and the car had the
pace for pole again today, but it just didn’t work out this time.”
For Asmer’s young team-mate Austrian Walter
Grubmüller, the demanding Guia circuit proved tricky for the F3 rookie as he
crashed in both sessions and will start the first race from 27th on
the grid. “Macau is renowned
for being hard on cars and hard on drivers,” said Hayle. “You
don’t need to make a big mistake to hit the wall here and that’s
just what happened to Walter. However, there’s tomorrow’s race to
come. If he can keep out of trouble and continue his usual impressive race pace
performance, he should be able to make up some places for the final on
Sunday.”
The team’s third driver, Macanese Michael Ho fared
slightly better, posting the 25th quickest time, again the top local driver,
ahead of tomorrow’s qualification race. “Michael again proved he is
the best of the local drivers by posting the quickest time of the Macanese
drivers. He’s done a good job and kept out of trouble, hopefully he can
continue that form through tomorrow’s race and into the crucial final on
Sunday.”
The qualification race kicks off at 1pm local
time tomorrow the result of which will determine the grid for Sunday’s
main race, the Polytec Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix.
Qualifying for race one
1 Oliver Jarvis Team Reckless Tom's 2:11.696
2 MARKO ASMER
HITECH RACING 2:11.888
3 Kodai Tsukakoshi Manor Motorsport 2:11.912
4 Sebastien Buemi Raikkonen-Robertson Racing 2:12.061
5 Edoardo Mortara Signature Plus 2:12.238
6 Romain Grosjean ASM F3 2:12.248
25 MICHAEL HO
HITECH RACING 2:17.273
27 WALTER
GRUBMÜLLER HITECH RACING 2:18.456
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