It seems like an unlikely place to race, but racing has been going on in the streets of Macau for the last sixty years. In recent years, a highlight has been the GT3 race, which draws some of the best sports car racing teams and drivers in the world. BMW has won this race before but had to settle for second and third this year after appearing to have a victory in hand.
Macau is an autonomous region on the south coast of China, and the Macau Grand Prix is a motorsport festival with several races over the weekend. The FIA GT World Cup GT3 race drew 23 entries, with many cars featuring works drivers run by factory-supported teams. BMW had four M4 GT3 entries, with Raffaele Marciello driving for Toro Racing powered by MCG, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor driving a pair of entries for BMW M Team WRT, and Augusto Farfus (shown in top photo) in a car entered by Team KRC, which is based in Macau.
Raffaele Marciello (left) and Dries Vanthoor (right) finished one-two in the qualifying race.
The M4 GT3s proved to be very competitive in qualifying for the qualifying race on Saturday on the 3.85-mile street circuit, with Raffaele Marciello getting the pole, followed by Dries Vanthoor in second and Augusto Farfus and Sheldon van der Linde in fifth and sixth. In the qualifying race on Saturday, the BMWs sparred on the first lap, with Vanthoor initially passing Marciello before Marciello repassed him for the lead on the first lap. Farfus was also passed by van der Linde at the start, but got past van der Linde a few corners later to slot into fifth.
The BMW drivers finished the qualifying race in first (Marciello), second (Vanthoor), fifth (Farfus) and sixth (van der Linde), which put them in those positions on the grid for the main race on Sunday. It was a strong result considering that the rule makers had given the BMWs a 40-millibar reduction in turbo boost before the qualifying race.
Sheldon van der Linde finished third after attrition took out three cars in front of him.
Sunday’s main race had wet conditions, and the race was run behind the safety car for five laps before going green. Unfortunately, neither of the top two BMWs finished the race. Vanthoor was hit from behind by Maro Engel in a Mercedes and then went into the wall, which ended his race. Marciello was under intense pressure from Antonio Fuoco in a Ferrari for several laps before Fuoco got by with just a couple of laps to go. Marciello fought back and the scrap led to the two cars making contact in a braking point and going off the track. This let Maro Engel get by for the win, despite a five-second post-race penalty for hitting Vanthoor. The attrition led to Farfus and van der Linde finishing in second and third behind the Mercedes.
BMW drivers (left to right) Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor, Augusto Farfus and Sheldon van der Linde hang out before the race.
Finishing in second and third was a great result, but it was nonetheless disappointing after the BMWs performed so well in the qualifying race. “Occupying the front row and having all four cars in the top-six showcased our strong performance,” said Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos. “There was an adjustment to the balance of performance for the M4 GT3 before the qualification race, but we still managed to defend our very good starting positions and win the race. In the main race, it became clear that our car was not the fastest and we fell back. Unfortunately, there was also an incident between Maro Engel and Dries Vanthoor, which in our view was not appropriately penalized, resulting in Dries’ race ending prematurely while he was in third place. Of course, it’s a great result to have two cars on the podium with Augusto Farfus and Sheldon van der Linde. But when you compete here, you want to win the race. And I believe we had arguably the strongest line-up, but not the chance to win.” —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Gruppe C Photography]