Penalised Roberto Merhi sure he can win Macau Grand Prix from eighth on grid
Roberto Merhi believes his hopes of victory in the Macau Grand Prix are still alive, despite a grid penalty moving him down to eighth on the grid for the qualification race
The Spaniard qualified second, but has been moved seven places down the grid for causing a collision when he crashed into Felix Rosenqvist in first qualifying. In the end, he only dropped six places because Kevin Magnussen was put to the back row of the grid for a yellow flag infringement.
Even though the eighth slot means Merhi will have to work hard if he wants to challenge at the front on Sunday, the Spaniard is confident that his pace this weekend means he will be able to make swift progress.
"I want to finish this race after last year [when he crashed out]," said Merhi. "I want to make sure I get through to the final, and try to win this Macau GP.
"I think we have the potential, the team has done a good job and I think I am very competitive and very confident. In any conditions I am going to be really quick, and I am confident in myself."
Merhi said that the circumstances of the weekend had not been ideal for him - following crashes and penalties - but felt it was only right that he and Marco Wittmann ended up battling for pole position following their season-long duel in the F3 Euro Series.
"It has been a difficult weekend for me," explained the Prema driver, who qualified behind poleman Wittmann. "In the first qualifying I was P1 but I had an accident with Rosenqvist and because of that accident I had a seven-place grid penalty.
"Then this morning I had a crash in San Francisco, and because of that crash I wasn't pushing so hard in this corner. I was taking care every time.
"But I was P1 in qualifying and all the time I was battling with Marco. He did a good job to improve on my best time and put me down to P2, but it has been all year like this, and it is nice to come here again to be P1 and P2."
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