Taylor down but not out

The Manor Motorsport driver crashed out of the first session after Italian Matteo Bobbi collided with him and then saw his chances of a decent run in second qualifying hampered when he selected the wrong gear and buzzed the engine. He ended up 18th.

But despite the setbacks, Taylor wants to leave Macau with something to smile about.

"The Macau race is never straightforward," he said. "There could be an accident on the first lap which takes out a lot of the guys ahead of me. We will just have to wait and see.

"If I can get just outside the top ten in the first race then that puts me in a pretty decent place for the second event. I can't pretend that I am going to finish on the podium here, but a top ten result would be good from where I am starting from."