Macau Grand Prix Roundup

Its a testament to Lewis Hamilton's blinding speed to find that his lap record of the 6.1 km Guia circuit has stood since 2002 and has only been beaten today by Robert Streit. But once again, the Macau Grand Prix has proven to be a hard test for the grand prix stars of tomorrow. Of course, far be it for bloody Star Sports to carry the qualifying race held yesterday so I missed out on a lot of the action. Big name casualty during race 1 was one Sebastien Vettel, who had to start this race from the back.

Formula 3 Euro Series runner Kamui Kobayashi started from pole ahead of Marko Asmer and Kohei Hirate. All of these guys running in Dallara Mercedes run by ASM, Hitech and Manor respectively. But the one everyone had their eye on was Paul di Resta who started fourth is the second ASM Dallara-Merc. Having beaten Vettel in the Euro Series and taken the Masters at Zandvoort, he was in with a chance to do the triple grand slam by taking the Macau Grand Prix.

As ever, the race itself proved highly unpredictable. Going into Lisboa on the opening lap, we were treated to a highly amusing incident involving Kobayashi (favourite for the race after a storming qualifying), di Resta and Asmer. Kobayashi tried to go on the outside of Asmer, who himself was just simply too late on the brakes and simply went straight ahead. I'm not sure if di Resta was concentrating too hard on the car ahead of him, but he too went straight ahead after punting Asmer. In all the confusion, British Formula 3 champion, 22 year old Mike Conway found himself in the lead ahead of Hirate, newly signed Williams F1 tester Kazuki Nakajima, Andre Sutil (another highly rated runner) and Richard Antinucci.

Paul di Resta would restart but would crash at the end of that lap, prompting the deployment of the safety car. After the restart Sutil would pass Nakajima who attempted a fightback only to outbrake himself into Lisboa and letting through Sutil and Antinucci.

Of all the runners today, I was quite impressed by Antinucci's pace and consistency. Of course Conway was running away in front after a good restart but Antinucci seemd to have the fighting spirit in him today. The 25 year old Roman born and resident American pulling out some really quick laps and putting a really solid drive. His moves against both the highly rated Sutil and later on Hirate were particularly sweet and decisive. I think he's a little too old now to enter Formula 1 and certainly his past record hasn't been too good but today he seemed on form. I think he must have taken second fastest lap of the race and also beating Lewis Hamilton's 4 year old record.

This year's Formula 3 race must have been the best I've seen in a while at Macau. I just wished Vettel could have been up front with the leaders and I had fancied him to win. But the challenge of Macau's bumps and demanding turns is to keep it on the island in the first place. This he failed to do although it must be said he had problems with his brakes in the qualification race. However, Mike Conway is a worthy winner of this race. He had a stunning mid season in British Formula 3 with KKR beating much fancied Bruno Senna with a good string of victories. Now he's won Formula 3's premier event. Hard luck if he doesn't get a GP2 drive next year but with this victory I'm sure he will.

Macau Guia And BTCC Note

I was very upset that for the first time in years, the Macau Grand Prix was not shown live on Star Sports. They obviously thought that the premier Formula 3 event of the year and the championship finale of the World Touring Car Championship was not worthy to be up against some stupid ATP Masters Tennis tournament. I can understand a grand slam tennis tournament taking precedence but this???

Anyway, thankfully it was shown as a delayed telecast and as usual Macau never fails to serve up some good racing. Like that other famous street circuit at Monte Carlo, its hard to overtake in Macau but the circuit itself is so good and incredibly demanding. Like Monaco, it has some incredibly tight corners and hairpins but it has also a damn fine waterfront section that includes that incredible flat out Mandarin bend before hard braking into the tight and accident prone Lisboa.

If you're going to win in the Guia race then pole position is an absolute must. Just like Monte Carlo. And once again, its that man Andy Priaulx who took pole ahead of (ugh!) Dirk Muller in the BMW Team Deutschland, Yvan Muller in the SEAT Leon and Duncan Huisman. I'll never understand why BMW are keeping this overrated Dutchman. Championship leader Augusto Farfus Jr started from seventh and carrying the maximum weight handicap of 80 kilos. As Priaulx himself mentioned 80 kilos is a helluva lot of weight to bear and its just as well he came into this race with only 45 kilos of handicap, else that pole would not have been possible.

In the first rce it was Andy for lights to flag and ably backed up by Duncan Huisman who held off Yvan Muller right till the end. Fabrizio Giovanardi in the semi works JAS Honda kept these two in close contact throughout the entire race. The weight laden Farfus I thought did admirably well to take fifth spot.

In the second race, Jorg Muller made a stunning start to pass both Peter Terting and Tom Coronel off the grid. 75 kilos handicap or not, that rear drive BMW is quite a demon at the lights. And just as in the first race, the infamous Lisboa had a opening lap incident. If the first race took a number of Chevrolets, this second race proved hard on the SEAT runners. A few folks did not start this race and among them was Alex Zanardi who suffered terminal damage to his car in the first race. Andy Priaulx held off Fabrizio Giovanardi to take fifth and win the world championship. This is his third touring car title in a row and I wouldn't bet against him taking it again next year.

Of couse, Mario Thiessen had to force a smile on the podium. Whilst Jorg Muller won the race, he could not take the championship. In the end the gap between him and Andy was a mere one point. But I bet Mario is seething that yet again, his German drivers were beaten by a Brit. I do have to say that Jorg was pretty lucky at the restart of the second race because Peter Terting basically held everyone back with a broken gearbox. Else I thought the two SEATs of Coronel and Muller would have been a lot closer to him.

In a weight handicapped series like the WTCC, its hard to tell who drove well and who didn't. Giovanardi in the JAS Honda looked impressive to me hassling the works cars but then of course he would since he carried no handicap at all. I felt sorry for Farfus though as he crashed on the opening lap of the second race. Despite his 80 kilos he had done a bloody good job. Much as I hate to admit it but Jorg Muller did drive well despite that 75 kilos, though luck was on his side.

As ever on this demanding circuit the attrition rate was very high with half the field failing to finish. Famous casualties include Rickard Rydell, Peter Terting, Jan Magnussen, Gabriele Tarquini and Nicola Larini. The latter three all ex Formula 1 folks as well.

Congratulations again to Andy Priaulx. In modern touring cars, he's proving to be the class of the field. And if Thiessen wants a German win he's going to have to hire some better Germans to do it. And also a job well done to Racing Bart Mampaey who yet again despite being a lot smaller than the Schnitzer team has beaten them again. D0n't you just love it when the little guy wins?

Speaking about little people, congratulations also to Matt Neal for retaining the British Touring Car Championship in the independently entered Halfords Honda Integra. In the process taking both drivers and team titles in the BTCC and the independents trophies as well. This year, Matt was up against incredibly strong opposition from the likes of Jason Plato, Gavin Smith and Fabrizio Giovanardi who all had the full weight of the Volkswagen Audi Group behind them in the SEAT Sport UK Leons. Goes to show that there is a spot for independents in this increasingly manufacturer obsessed world. I guess if the base machinery is an excellent one as you have with the Integra beating works SEATs and Vauxhalls is not a problem.

Finally, I hope this circuit makes it into Gran Turismo 5. Its an absolute cracker.