Macau: Piquet to make amends

The newly crowned British Formula 3 champion had high hopes of challenging for the win last year but his weekend ended in embarrassing disappointment after he hit the barriers on his reconnaissance lap out of the pits before the start of the first race. He has also suffered a pretty big crash in first qualifying.

Speaking exclusively to autosport.com ahead of this weekend's race, Piquet admitted that he approached last year's race in the wrong way - and has learned his lessons this time out.

"I think I was too strong in the head to go for the win," he confessed. "I was really pushing too much for no reason and that was why I ended up crashing in the barriers. But now I know how it is and I won't push that hard again."

Piquet has been singled out as one of the pre-event favourites for victory this weekend - although he thinks he is going to face a tough challenge from what is regarded as one of the strongest fields of recent years.

"I am very confident and our car should be very good," he said. "I think I have learned what I have to do after last year and now I know I need to be patient if I am going to win.

"I think there are about four or five drivers, including myself, who have a good chance to win the race. But as I saw last year, some of the good guys can have accidents and not get a decent result.

"For sure I have a good chance, but I think Jamie Green will be strong, and so will Fabio Carbone, Richard Antinucci and Danny Watts."

First practice for the Macau Grand Prix takes place on Thursday morning, with the first qualifying session taking place in the afternoon.