Hirate heads Macau practice 1
Manor Motorsport's Kohei Hirate was quickest in the opening free practice for the Macau Grand Prix, after outpacing Prema Powerteam's Roberto Streit by 0.545 seconds
Hirate put in the best time on his final lap of practice, as most drivers spent the session acclimatising to the challenging Guia street circuit
Kazuki Nakajima, who has just been confirmed as a test driver for the WilliamsF1 team, was third quickest with his final lap - which was just three thousandths of a second slower than Streit.
British F3 Champion Mike Conway topped the times for most of the session, making the most of his experience of the circuit from his debut last year, but he was demoted to fourth overall after a flurry of quick times right at the chequered flag.
Carlin Motorsport's Sebastian Vettel was thankful to just get some laps under his belt after spending most of the first 20 minutes of the session in the pits as his mechanics worked to resolve an engine problem.
"It wasn't running properly but we managed to fix it," said Vettel, who ended up eighth overall. "At least I got out on the track, because things could have been worse. And for the few laps I did, the car feels OK."
The session was relatively incident-free. Daisuke Ikeda ended up backwards in the barriers at Lisboa after being spun around by another car, while Kazuya Oshima damaged his front left wheel and suspension after swiping the barriers at R Bend.
Pos Driver Car Time Laps 1. Kohei Hirate Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:14.887 12 2. Robert Streit Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:15.432 13 3. Kazuki Nakajima Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:15.435 12 4. Mike Conway Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:15.457 13 5. Adrian Sutil Dallara Toyota-TOM'S 2:15.724 12 6. Richard Antinucci Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:15.991 13 7. Charlie Kimball Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:16.194 11 8. Sebastian Vettel Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:16.243 6 9. Marko Asmer Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:16.409 12 10. Kamui Kobayashi Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:16.558 13 11. Romain Grosjean Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:16.971 9 12. Kodai Tsukakoshi Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:17.170 13 13. Paul Di Resta Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:17.270 13 14. Oliver Jarvis Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:17.300 12 15. Sebastien Buemi Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:17.349 12 16. Maro Engel Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:17.844 12 17. Fabio Carbone Dallara Nissan 2:17.855 8 18. Kazuya Oshima Dallara Toyota-TOM'S 2:18.555 7 19. Rodolfo Avila Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:19.639 11 20. Daisuke Ikeda Dallara Toyota-TOM'S 2:19.757 5 21. Jonathan Kennard Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:20.195 12 22. Stephen Jelley Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:20.392 6 23. James Jakes Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:20.965 7 24. Yelmer Buurman Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:21.204 12 25. Maximo Cortes Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:21.658 12 26. Michael Ho Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:21.848 12 27. Mauro Massironi Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:22.348 12 28. Roldan Rodriguez Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:24.157 12 29. Cheong Lou Meng Dallara Honda-Mugen NB 2:24.985 8 30. Lei Kit Meng Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:26.747 12 31. James Winslow Dallara Toyota-TOM'S 2:28.304 10 32. Jo Merszei Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:30.360 8
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