F3 Macau: Antonio Felix da Costa wins qualifying race for Carlin
Antonio Felix da Costa won the qualification race for the Macau Grand Prix after leading all 10 laps around the Guia circuit
From the outside of the front row, the Portuguese driver immediately got ahead of polesitter Alex Lynn.
Felix Rosenqvist, fourth on the grid, got an even better start and moved into the lead, but da Costa slipstreamed back ahead of him into Lisboa for the first time.
Da Costa took four laps to build his lead to a second, but by the seventh lap Rosenqvist began to close. Da Costa then extended his advantage again as the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen led home the Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes.
"Today it's all about bringing it home," said GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 race winner da Costa.
"Tomorrow is the day that counts. I pushed a bit on the first lap, then I managed to break the tow and pull away."Lynn lost a couple of seconds to the leading duo on the opening lap, in part due to having to repass the fast-starting Daniel Juncadella and fend off Carlos Sainz Jr on the run to Lisboa.
He then maintained the gap and finished a comfortable third in his Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes.
As Lynn and Sainz repassed Juncadella, Harry Tincknell took advantage to also demote the European champion and move into fifth.
Juncadella got Tincknell got back on lap four, and from then on Carlin driver Sainz had his work cut out fending off Juncadella's Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes.
Fortec runner Tincknell and Mucke driver Pascal Wehrlein also latched onto this group, and by the end it had grown to six as Hannes van Asseldonk and Felipe Nasr joined in, the Dutchman passing the Brazilian on the final lap.
Alexander Sims completed the top 10 in his ThreeBond/T-Sport Dallara-Nissan, winning a seesawing battle with Raffaele Marciello.
Four cars crashed out, although there were no safety cars. The most significant of the retirements was Felix Serralles, who was racing through from a back-of-the-grid start, his penalty for needing an engine change after his shunt in qualifying. He retired with a broken wishbone halfway through the race after brushing the wall on the opening lap.
Meanwhile, Kevin Korjus started his Double R Racing Dallara-Mercedes from the pitlane and was too far adrift to climb into the top 20.
Race result: 10 laps Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Antonio Felix da Costa Carlin Dallara-VW 22m31.290s 2. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Mercedes + 1.559s 3. Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Mercedes + 4.567s 4. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW + 7.638s 5. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Mercedes + 8.460s 6. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Mercedes + 10.427s 7. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Mercedes + 11.452s 8. Hannes van Asseldonk Prema Dallara-Mercedes + 12.264s 9. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW + 13.243s 10. Alexander Sims T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 14.439s 11. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Mercedes + 16.747s 12. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 18.291s 13. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Mercedes + 21.565s 14. Will Buller Carlin Dallara-VW + 22.296s 15. Daniel Abt Carlin Dallara-VW + 24.338s 16. Hideki Yamauchi B-Max Dallara-Toyota + 24.778s 17. Jimmy Eriksson Double R Dallara-Mercedes + 30.092s 18. Tom Blomqvist Euro International Dallara-VW + 30.578s 19. Jazeman Jaafar TOM'S Dallara-Toyota + 32.945s 20. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Mercedes + 34.180s 21. Kevin Korjus Double R Dallara-Mercedes + 40.698s 22. Lucas Auer Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW + 42.149s 23. Luis Sa Silva Angola Dallara-Mercedes + 48.582s 24. Ryo Hirakawa RSS Dallara-Toyota + 49.825s 25. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW + 50.579s 26. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Mercedes + 50.829s Retirements: Sven Muller Prema Dallara-Mercedes 8 laps Andrea Roda Jo Zeller Dallara-Mercedes 8 laps Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Mercedes 6 laps Yuichi Nakayama TOM'S Dallara-Toyota 3 laps
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