Manning favourite for Macau victory

The TOM'S driver ended the day more than one second clear of his closest rival, local hero Andre Couto, and nearly two seconds quicker than last year's pole position time.

'I am as surprised as anybody about today,' said Manning.

'It's been a great day, but there is still a long way to go before Sunday. I am going to sit down tonight and work out where we can improve our car even more.'

Manning's rivals were left gobsmacked by his performance - and pre-race favourite Christijan Albers has already conceded that he will not be able to match the British driver's pace.

'His time is unbelievable,' said the Dutchman who won the German Formula 3 Championship this year.

'It is going to be difficult to do anything about him and I don't know if we can do it.

'At the moment I just want us to get into the one minute 14 seconds barrier, but by then I think Darren will be down in the one minute 13s. We've got a lot of work to do.'

Jenson Button was more than happy with his seventh best time, after spending most of the day learning the challenging Macau circuit, while the other British drivers were struggling further down the field.

Andrew Kirkaldy was 24th overall, following the exclusion of Tsugio Matsuda, and Marc Hynes was 20th - although both managed to stay away from the walls that claimed a number of drivers during qualifying.

'The track is amazing,' said British Formula 3 Champion Hynes.

'It's great fun but I am lacking experience. I think I will be doing some laps in a Mini-Moke tonight just to understand the circuit a bit better.'