Courtney cool under pressure
Japanese F3 champion James Courtney believes he can live up to the pre-event hype that he is one of the favourites for this weekend's Macau Grand Prix
The former Jaguar F1 test driver gained valuable experience of the challenging street circuit last season - despite being taken out of the first race in an opening lap crash - and is confident his TOM'S outfit will be bang on the pace.
"My team has got a lot of experience here," he said. "Last year I had that crash in the first race, but in the second race I started right from the back and came up through the field to finish fifth. So I know the circuit a little bit and, with the experience TOM'S has, hopefully we will make a good combination for the race this weekend."
Courtney believes that the race's most experienced drivers - Narain Karthikeyan with four Macau events under his belt and Paolo Montin with five - will be his closest challengers but he has not ruled out all the rookies.
"Paolo and Narain will definitely be tough. But I also think Ryan Briscoe will be quite quick. You can say that experience is worth a lot here, but last season on the first day I was third so I think it is just a question of adapting quickly to a circuit.
"It is going to be hard work and it's definitely not going to be easy for anybody."
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