Macau GP - Formula 3 Races Round Up With Photos
Macau GP is the living proof that street tracks can offer lots of excitment. Powerful Formula 3 cars with less aero and more mechanical grid combined with with world collection of racing talent is a recipe for success. Unlike the Chinese F1 race in Shanghai, the Macau GP was pretty much a sell out with about 40,000 people filling up the few available grandstands and many more watching along the track or from the buildings overseeing the track. Unlike many F1 races, Macau GP actually has seen an increase in ticket sales !
Oliver Jarvis
(see the rest of the article for more photos)
The WTTC races were very exciting but the star event of the Macau GP is the Formula 3 International race. The very first Formula 3 race in Macau was won 25 years ago by Ayrton Senna. The 1990 Macau race saw a fight between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher, with Hakkinen crashing out after some sort break test stunt from Schumi (see the video at the bottom of this post). Schumi went on to win that race. Ralf Schumacher, Takuma Sato are other F1 drivers with recent Macau win to their record.
The Qualifying race on Saturday looked at times like a slalom between the car debris 
The first safety car was out on lap 2 after Esteban Guererri crashed. The yellow flags also prevented Oliver Jarvis to complete his overtaking attempt on the leader Marko Asmer. He hower overtook him on lap five after slipstreaming Asmer down the strait and going outside him at the Lisboa Bend. He kept the lead all the way till lap nine, when the race was redflagged. First Bruno Senna and Nico Hulkenberg crashed at the Manadrin bend, then Atte Mustonen hit the wall leaving the car debris all over and the car itself stranded in the middle of the track. The race results were based on the standings after lap 7. Oliver Jarvis won, ahead of Marko Asmer who sent a message in the direction of BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen… The big victim of Saturday’s mayhem was Bruno Senna. His car was declared “dead” after his 250 km/h hour crash and he was unable to participate in the main race on Sunday.
Sunday race started with Oliver Jarvis on pole ahead of Marko Asmer. Jarvis got away quickly, Asmer lost the position to Oshima and also to Sam Bird. He howver reclaimed the 3rd from Bird a lap later. It all looked pretty much set until Frank Mailleux crashed at Moorish Hill. The safety car erased the gaps between the cars. Oliver Jarvis managed the restart well and kept his lead. Oshima followed him but Asmer lost his 3rd place to Kodai Tsukakoshi. On lap 13 Tsukakoshi overtook Oshima as well. It looked for a while like he went on to chase Jarvis down but that hasn’t happened. Jonathan Kennard hit the tyre wall towards the end of the race, but his car was recovered without any disturbance to the race (photos below the article) and Jarvis went on to win the race ahead of Tsukakoshi and Reckless Tom’s team mate Oshima.
Here are words from the winner:
“My aim was to put my foot down and get away. A few choice words came to me (when the safety car came out). I won’t say what they were. But I remained cool. This is Macau and we all know that this race very rarely ends without the safety car coming on. I knew the re-start would be crucial and luckily I got away comfortably and maintained my lead.
This is the biggest win of my career and I hope it will help open some doors. I really don’t know what I will do next year. Budgets are a problem but I hope I can approach some teams with this title under my belt.
“It is great to beat such a competitive field. There were champions from all over Europe for this prestigious event. Everyone wants to win Macau and I’m glad I did it. Now my dream would be to secure a test drive in F1.”
Here are some photos from the action on Sunday (morning warm up and the afternoon race). I am sorry they are all from pretty much the same angle, but it is not that easy to take photos in the confined space of Macau track and grandstands.
van der Zande
van der Zande
James Jakes
Rodolfo Avila
Carlo van Dam
Michael Ho
Sebastien Buemi
Formula 3 in Macau
Edoardo Mortara
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Stephen Jelley
Marko Asmer
Sam Bird
James Jakes
Sebastien Buemi
Sam Bird
Takuya Izawa
Formula 3 in Macau
Formula 3 in Macau
Sam Bird
Yelmer Buurman
Roberto Streit
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Jonathan Kennard
Brendon Hartley
Rodolfo Avila
Jo Merszei
Nico Hulkenberg
Romain Grosjean
Leu Kit Meng
Lisboa Bend
Lisboa Bend
Lisboa Bend
Lisboa Bend
Lisboa Bend
Lisboa Bend
Formula 3 in Macau
Marko Asmer
Marko Asmer and Sam Bird
Oliver Jarvis
Kodai Tsukakoshi
Sebastien Buemi
Formula 3 in Macau
Safety Car
Lei Kit Meng
Romain Grosjean
Stephen Kennard
Nico Hulkenberg
Kamui Kobayashi
Esteban Guerrieri
Renger van der Zande
Michael Ho
Safety Car
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Stephen Kennard
Oliver Jarvis
If you like to see some video footage from Macau GP, head on to the Macau GP official site, they already have several videos available there. I wish Bernie took some notice …
And here is the video mentioned at the top of the post - Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher, Macau GP 1990:
tags: Tags: Macau GP
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November 19th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Nice article and great photos, you take them?
Interesting to watch the Schumacher - Hakkinen race too, strategic brake test maybe?
Added your site to my blogroll
November 19th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
yes, I took these. they are not that good actually as it is really difficult to find a good spot for photo shooting in Macau, unless you are an official photographer
thanks for the blog roll, you are here as well