Asmer tops Thursday qualifying
Hitech Racing's Marko Asmer secured provisional pole position for the Macau Grand Prix on Thursday when he led the way after an incident-filled first qualifying session
The Estonian, who is competing in the Macau Grand Prix for the second time, put in his best lap with 10 minutes of the session remaining - and right before two red flags left his rivals unable to respond to his performance.
The first red flag was brought out by Signature Plus' Charlie Kimball, who crashed heavily at Fishermen's Bend. The American climbed out of the car unaided and was unhurt in the incident.
Then just a few minutes after the session had restarted, Japanese Formula Three champion Adrian Sutil brought qualifying to a halt for a second time when he also shunted at Fishermen's Bend. Although he remained in the car for several minutes after the accident, he eventually climbed out without injury. With only two minutes of the session remaining it was decided to abandon qualifying.
That decision left the morning's free practice pace setter Kohei Hirate with the second fastest time.
"The red flags meant I could not respond to Marko's time, but I am sure there is plenty more to come from me tomorrow, so we should go quicker," he said.
Romain Grosjean was third fastest overall, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Fabio Carbone. British Formula Three champion Mike Conway was sixth fastest, with Richard Antinucci seventh and Roberto Streit eighth. Kimball still managed to take ninth place on the timesheets despite his accident.
Formula Three Euroseries champion Paul di Resta was pretty happy with his tenth place after damaging his front right tyre when he ran over debris at the hairpin and locked up.
"I can't really complain," said the Scotsman. "Of course I would like to be right at the top but considering the number of laps I have done, I am pretty satisfied."
Thursday qualifying times:
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Marko Asmer Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:13.965 2. Kohei Hirate Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 0.291 3. Romain Grosjean Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 0.439 4. Kamui Kobayashi Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 0.535 5. Fabio Carbone Dallara Nissan + 0.780 6. Mike Conway Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 0.790 7. Richard Antinucci Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 1.277 8. Robert Streit Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 1.484 9. Charlie Kimball Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 1.514 10. Paul Di Resta Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 1.628 11. Kodai Tsukakoshi Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 1.992 12. Maro Engel Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 2.137 13. Sebastien Buemi Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 2.315 14. Kazuki Nakajima Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 2.337 15. Kazuya Oshima Dallara Toyota-TOM'S + 2.610 16. Sebastian Vettel Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 2.655 17. Adrian Sutil Dallara Toyota-TOM'S + 3.013 18. Oliver Jarvis Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 3.156 19. James Jakes Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 3.279 20. Stephen Jelley Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 3.355 21. Daisuke Ikeda Dallara Toyota-TOM'S + 3.568 22. Yelmer Buurman Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 4.128 23. Jonathan Kennard Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 4.246 24. Mauro Massironi Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 4.689 25. Roldan Rodriguez Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 5.183 26. Michael Ho Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 6.149 27. Maximo Cortes Dallara Mercedes-HWA + 6.478 28. Rodolfo Avila Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 6.519 29. James Winslow Dallara Toyota-TOM'S + 6.734 30. Cheong Lou Meng Dallara Honda-Mugen NB + 10.153 31. Lei Kit Meng Dallara Opel-Spiess + 10.697 32. Jo Merszei Dallara Toyota-Tom's + 13.743
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