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Roberto Merhi takes provisional Macau Grand Prix pole then crashes

Roberto Merhi secured provisional pole position during a wet Macau Grand Prix qualifying on Thursday, but his session ended in disaster when he crashed into the back of another car

Prema's Spaniard was in brilliant form around the Guia circuit, setting a best lap that was 1.675 seconds quicker than nearest rival Marco Wittmann (Signature).

But shortly after he put in his best lap, Merhi failed to slow in time at Lisboa and smashed into the back of Mucke driver Felix Rosenqvist - with the pair's badly damaged cars skidding down the escape road.

Wittmann did not have much better luck as, in an attempt to beat Merhi's time when the session resumed after the crash, he too went off at Lisboa and damaged the front left of his car.

Felipe Nasr ended the day third fastest in the top Carlin car, ahead of Daniel Juncadella (Prema) and Alexander Sims (TOM'S).

Valtteri Bottas managed to make it to the Macau track in time following his journey from the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 test - despite missing a flight by a couple of minutes and suffering a delay on a ferry. He was 27th overall for Double R.

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car                   Time       Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi           Prema Dallara-Merc         2m28.860s
 2.  Marco Wittmann          Signature Dallara-VW       2m30.535s  + 1.675s
 3.  Felipe Nasr             Carlin Dallara-VW          2m30.639s  + 1.779s
 4.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema Dallara-Merc         2m30.867s  + 2.007s
 5.  Alexander Sims          TOM'S Dallara-Toyota       2m31.306s  + 2.446s
 6.  Yuhi Sekiguchi          Mucke Dallara-Merc         2m31.634s  + 2.774s
 7.  Hannes van Asseldonk    Hitech Dallara-VW          2m31.891s  + 3.031s
 8.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Hitech Dallara-VW          2m31.901s  + 3.041s
 9.  William Buller          Fortec Dallara-Merc        2m32.295s  + 3.435s
10.  Felix Rosenqvist        Mucke Dallara-Merc         2m32.457s  + 3.597s
11.  Lucas Foresti           Fortec Dallara-Merc        2m32.551s  + 3.691s
12.  Kimiya Sato             Motopark Dallara-VW        2m32.891s  + 4.031s
13.  Richie Stanaway         Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW  2m32.996s  + 4.136s
14.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin Dallara-VW          2m33.281s  + 4.421s
15.  Daniel Abt              Signature Dallara-VW       2m33.428s  + 4.568s
16.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW          2m33.588s  + 4.728s
17.  Marko Asmer             Double R Dallara-Merc      2m33.866s  + 5.006s
18.  Laurens Vanthoor        Signature Dallara-VW       2m33.881s  + 5.021s
19.  Jimmy Eriksson          Motopark Dallara-VW        2m34.034s  + 5.174s
20.  Adderly Fong            Sino Vision Dallara-Merc   2m34.273s  + 5.413s
21.  Carlos Munoz            Signature Dallara-VW       2m34.278s  + 5.418s
22.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin Dallara-VW          2m34.675s  + 5.815s
23.  Hideki Yamauchi         Toda Dallara-ondaH         2m34.725s  + 5.865s
24.  Carlos Sainz Jr         Signature Dallara-VW       2m34.744s  + 5.884s
25.  Hywel Lloyd             Sino Vision Dallara-Merc   2m34.750s  + 5.890s
26.  Mitch Evans             Double R Dallara-Merc      2m35.133s  + 6.273s
27.  Valtteri Bottas         Double R Dallara-Merc      2m35.877s  + 7.017s
28.  Pietro Fantin           Hitech Dallara-VW          2m36.057s  + 7.197s
29.  Richard Bradley         TOM'S Dallara-Toyota       2m36.823s  + 7.963s
30.  Hironobu Yasuda         Three Bond Dallara-Nissan  2m42.441s  + 13.581s

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