Macau, China, 20 Nov – Spanish driver Daniel Juncadella won a thrilling Macau Grand Prix on Sunday with the time of 42:17.099 making the most of a safety car restart to haul himself to the head of the field.
Juncadella had been running fourth for Prema early on as pole position man German Marco Wittmann (Signature) raced away at the front – opening up a 2.7 seconds gap at one point.
But after a safety car came out on lap seven so marshals could retrieve a stranded car, Wittmann saw his advantage wiped away – and it all went wrongfor him at the restart.
Wittmann, Juncadella, Brazilian Felipe Nasr (Carlin) and Japanese Yuhi Sekiguchi (Mucke) all got involved in an epic slipstreaming battle down to Lisboa bend– with Juncadella coming out on top.
Juncadella then pulled clear at the front, despite Nasr closing on him after he had moved up to second on lap 11 – and his win was assured when the safety car was called out again on the penultimate lap following a big crash on the main straight.
Wittmann, who had briefly dropped down to fifth at the restart, recovered to finish third, ahead of Sekiguchi and Hitech’s Hannes van Asseldonk.
The race was full of incident – with Prema’s Roberto Merhi, from Spain, triggering a startline accident when he got away slowly from his third spot on the grid and was hit from behind by several cars.
Valtteri Bottas (Double R), from Finland, had threatened Wittmann for the lead early on, but he hit the wall at Lisboa on lap four following a safetycar restart and was forced to retire.(MacauNews/Sports)
