Asmer on provisional pole at Macau

Asmer had been unable to match Grosjean's pace in the morning free practice session, but the Hitech Racing driver timed his best lap to perfection to move to the top of the timesheets with nine minutes of first qualifying remaining.

He then faced a nervous wait to see if his best effort would be good enough for the pole spot, as Grosjean set a series of quick laps right at the end.

Having been forced to miss the early part of the session while his ASM team repaired the damage caused by his crash in free practice, Grosjean steadily improved to set the second best time two minutes from the end.

Manor Motorsport's Yelmer Buurman was third quickest, with Raikkonen Robertson Racing's Sebastien Buemi setting the fourth fastest time - having been battling for the pole spot for much of the session.

There was disappointment for Bruno Senna, aiming to take an emotional victory in the 25th running of the F3 race following his uncle's success in the inaugural event in 1983.

He crashed out at San Francisco and was then hit by Takuya Izawa, bringing out the session's only red flag.

Pos   Driver                  Team                         Time
 1.   Marko Asmer             Hitech Racing                2:13.122
 2.   Romain Grosjean         ASM F3                         +0.207
 3.   Yelmer Buurman          Manor Motorsport               +0.283
 4.   Sebastien Buemi         Raikkonen Robertson Racing     +0.314
 5.   Esteban Guerrieri       Signature Plus                 +0.611
 6.   Kodai Tsukakoshi        Manor Motorsport               +0.766
 7.   Kamui Kobayashi         ASM F3                         +0.803
 8.   James Jakes             Manor Motorsport               +0.984
 9.   Robert Streit           Prema Powerteam                +1.006
10.   Stephen Jelley          Raikkonen Robertson Racing     +1.020
11.   Oliver Jarvis           Team Reckless Tom's            +1.027
12.   Edoardo Mortara         Signature Plus                 +1.143
13.   Kazuya Oshima           Team Reckless Tom's            +1.231
14.   Nico Hulkenberg         ASM F3                         +1.448
15.   Niall Breen             Carlin Motorsport              +1.566
16.   Atte Mustonen           Signature Plus                 +1.628
17.   Jonathan Kennard        Raikkonen Robertson Racing     +1.721
18.   Carlo van Dam           HBR Motorsport                 +2.203
19.   Renger van der Zande    Prema Powerteam                +2.429
20.   Bruno Senna             Raikkonen-Robertson            +2.998
21.   Sam Bird                Carlin Motorsport              +3.109
22.   Frank Mailleux          Manor Motorsport               +3.170
23.   Brendon Hartley         Carlin Motorsport              +3.320
24.   Walter Grubmuller       Hitech Racing                  +5.334
25.   Takuya Izawa            Fortec Motorsport              +5.452
26.   Rodolfo Avila           HBR Motorsport                 +6.636
27.   Michael Ho              Hitech Racing                  +6.825
28.   Lei Kit Meng            Carlin Motorsport             +11.238
29.   Cheong Lou Meng         Swiss Racing Team             +13.132
             
Not qualified (outside 110 per cent)
             
      Jo Merszei              Swiss Racing Team             +14.318