Robert Shwartzman and SJM Prema Theodore Racing will start the 66th Macau Grand Prix from the second place on the grid of the main event. The 20-year-old Russian delivered an outstanding performance in the qualification race held on Saturday morning at the Guia Circuit.
Kiwi drivers Marcus Armstrong and Liam Lawson will start the 66th Macau Grand Prix from 17th and 20th respectively.
“For sure luck was not on our side today,” commented Armstrong. “Right after the start, several cars made contact at Lisboa, and one of them ended up blocking the track right in front of me. When I managed to get going again, most of the pack was gone.
“After the restart, we pushed as much as we could and managed to gain positions. Obviously, today’s result is disappointing, but this is Macau and anything can happen so we are not giving up and we look forward to the Grand Prix.”
Starting from the front row, Shwartzman kept his position without taking any risks in the initial stages and continued to do so after an early re-start, putting up a highly-competitive pace. In the final stages, he gradually reduced the gap towards the front before eventually settling for P2, an extremely positive position ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix, starting at 15:30 local time, GMT+8.
As previous years at the Guia track, the race featured early drama which both remaining SJM Prema Theodore Racing cars fell victim to. Marcus Armstrong and Frederik Vesti found the track blocked by a stuck car at the first passing through Lisboa, and by the time they managed to go around the backup, they were already out of the top-20. While having to fight all the way back through the field, they made good improvement and eventually ended up in P17 and P18 respectively.
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