One of the Z4s racing down the street:
And GT news from today:
2014-11-14
Three-time race winner Edoardo Mortara took provisional pole position today in the first of two Qualifying sessions for Sunday’s Macau GT Cup. Despite clouting the Armco barrier during his first run, the Italian was able to find some clear track to set a lap of 2:18.230, quicker than Maro Engel’s pole-setting time last year.
Said Mortara: “I was very, very lucky with traffic in my two attempts in the session. In the first one, I had no traffic but I managed to put it in the wall which was my mistake and not optimal. We could have already set the benchmark. I had to come in put on another set of tyres, which was not planned. Then I went out again and obviously when had I crashed the car it was quite hard so it was quite bent. This is where you see the Audi quality. I crashed very, very hard into the wall but still the car was able to behave pretty normally. That allowed us to have another attempt. We had no traffic and we did the lap. I’m pretty sure we can go much quicker [in final qualifying] as I crashed very hard. But tomorrow is another day and different conditions, so you start a little bit from zero.”
New Zealand’s Earl Bamber was second fastest at the end of the session in the Porsche GT3 R, but still more than half a second off the Audi R8 LMS Ultra driver. Said Bamber: “It was a fantastic qualifying for us. It was a bit difficult as we had some traffic in the last sector which cost us, but that’s the game in Macau. I think it’s really great to be P2, especially for LKM as it’s their home race. It’s good to be quick but there’s still another qualifying tomorrow so we have to shoot up the car a bit more and work on it. Roll on tomorrow, and we’ll be charging. Or maybe just follow the master!”
Engel, in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 was third quickest, a second and a half off provisional pole having topped Thursday’s free practice. Mortara’s team mate Laurens Vanthoor could not match the Italian’s incredible pace, booking a provisional second row start.
The trilling session saw Mortara initially shoot to the top of the time sheets, but his team mate Vanthoor bettered his lap to take provisional pole after the man dubbed ‘Mr. Macau’ hit the barrier and had to pit.
With ten minutes of the session remaining, several drivers posted quicker times, Engel grabbing provisional pole with a lap in under two minutes 19 seconds which was immediately bettered by Mortara. Bamber then bettered his time to go second.
As the minutes counted down, Bamber’s LKM Racing team mate Siu Yuk Lung and Modena Motorsports’ Wayne Shen both made contact with the barriers, bringing out the yellow flags and meaning no driver could better his time.
With a dramatic few minutes between the green and chequered flags, several drivers put in a final dash but nobody could touch the master of the Guia Circuit.
The second Qualifying session for the Macau GT Cup will be held tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:50 local time.