Asmer confident of keeping pole

The British Formula Three champion's hopes of taking the top spot received a boost late in the morning session when Grosjean was caught up in an accident with Stephen Jelley and damaged his car.

With Grosjean's ASM team only getting the Frenchman's car repaired for the second half of qualifying, and still then leaving him with crooked steering, Asmer found himself in a fairly comfortable position at the front of the field.

"We went out with old tyres and we were quickest from that point until I came in," Asmer told autosport.com. "We waited in the pits, put a new set of tyres on and went out, but there was a crash at San Francisco and I had to come in.

"Still, the car felt good after that. There are still some tenths to come, though. The laps were not perfect but they were reasonably okay. I am confident that tomorrow we should improve again."

The Macau circuit traditionally improves over the course of the weekend, and that means the fight for pole will almost certainly continue throughout the second session tomorrow afternoon. But Asmer thinks it too early to say for definite what will happen.

"Last year there wasn't much improvement, but maybe this year there will maybe be more," he said. "If it comes then I guess the lap times will be pretty quick.

"At the moment there are no real surprises. Everyone is roughly where I thought they would be. I expected myself to be quick, with ASM, Manor and some of the Japanese guys up there. And it is just like that."