2001 Macau Grand Prix

The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three (F3) race that has been dubbed the territory's most prestigious international sporting event and a stepping stone to higher motorsport categories such as Formula One (F1).^[2][3] The 2001 Macau Grand Prix was the event's 48th edition and the 19th time it was held to F3 rules. It was held on the 6.2 km (3.9 mi) Guia Circuit on 18 November 2001, after three days of practice and qualifying.^[4] Following an accident during the warm-up session for the 2000 Guia Race of Macau in which driver Frans Verschuur's brakes failed, causing him to penetrate the Lisboa corner tyre wall and plough into a truck, killing a mainland Chinese tourist and injuring three others,^[5] race organisers installed two rows of steel barriers and improved safety by replacing its canvas and repairing the area's asphalt road surface.^[6]

Drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship race during the calendar year, in one of the seven national F3 championships that took place during the calendar year, with the top-placed drivers receiving priority to earn an invitation to the race.^[7] Each of the major F3 series champions were on the event's 30-car grid.^[8][9] British champion Takuma Sato, who had been signed to drive for Jordan Grand Prix in the 2002 Formula One World Championship in October 2001 and was the first contracted F1 driver to compete at the Macau Grand Prix since the 1985 race,^[7][10] was joined in Macau by German title holder Toshihiro Kaneishi, French series champion Ryō Fukuda, Japanese series winner Benoît Tréluyer and Australian champion Peter Hackett.^[9] The Macau Grand Prix Committee invited three Macanese drivers to compete: Jo Merszei, Michael Ho and Lei Kit Meng.^[7] British series driver Gianmaria Bruni elected to withdraw from the event and the Korea Super Prix because of a lack of car familiarisation time and instead tested an International Formula 3000 vehicle. Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship driver Heikki Kovalainen replaced Bruni.^[11][12]

There were two one-hour practice sessions preceding the race on Sunday: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning.^[13] The first practice session was held on a dirty track due to debris left over from the Guia Race of Macau and in cool, cloudy weather.^[11] TOM'S Paolo Montin lapped fastest in the final minute at 2:14.510.^[14] He was nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Jonathan Cochet, who had front braking issues and was fastest until Montin's lap. Sato, Pierre Kaffer, Tiago Monteiro, Yuji Ide, Kaneishi, João Paulo de Oliveira, Kosuke Matsuura and Tréluyer completed the top ten.^[11] No major incidents were reported during the session although Mark Taylor and Kovalainen scraped the trackside barriers.^[14][15]

Qualifying was divided into two 45-minute sessions, one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday afternoon. Each driver's fastest time from either session was used to determine their starting position in Sunday's race.^[13] The first qualifying session took place on Thursday afternoon in warm weather with a strong sea breeze from Macau's coastline.^[15] Practice pace setter Montin contended from the start and took provisional pole position with a 2 minutes, 13.214 seconds lap with less than two minutes left.^[16] Sato, second, led for much of qualifying with Cochet third.^[15] Monteiro led early on but failed to lap faster and came fourth. Anthony Davidson was fifth after seeking to find a rhythm he liked.^[15][16] Sixth-placed Kaneshi took first from Monteiro until he fell back.^[15] Fukuka, seventh, did not push too hard.^[16] Early pace setter Andy Priaulx was eighth; Tréluyer and Matsurra completed the top ten. De Oliviera was the fastest driver not to reach the top ten despite a strong start. The final positions were Kaffer, Björn Wirdheim, Enrico Toccacelo, Derek Hayes, Marchy Lee, Kovalainen, Bruce Jouanny, Tristan Gommendy, Sakon Yamamoto, Peter Sundberg, Hackett, Ho, Haruki Kurosawa, Lei, Merszei, Matteo Bobbi and Taylor.^[15] Ide and Raffaele Giammaria set no laps.^[16]

Ide slid on his out-lap and hit the Mandarin Oriental Bend wall. He recovered but stopped in the Melco hairpin tyre barrier, causing a traffic jam that caught Giammaria off guard. This stopped qualifying to allow marshals to clear the wreckage. Davidson could not avoid striking Lei's stricken car and went airborne. His suspension wishbones were broken and his nose cone removed. Davidson limped to the pit lane for car repairs. Later, Kurosawa removed one of his car's wheels in an impact with a wall. Taylor and Bobbi collided and ended their session early as Yamamoto struck the trackside wall.^[15] With less than a minute left,^[17] Davidson lost rear vehicle traction at Matsuya bend and struck the barrier. He ricocheted sideways across the track and stopped broadside. An unsighted Montiero then rammed Davidson's car at low speed.^[15] Davidson prepared by moving his head forward and exited his car unaided.^[18] He complained of a sore neck and was taken to the local hospital by ambulance for a precautionary x-ray.^[15][17] He was hospitalised overnight and withdrawn for the rest of the meeting due to a concussion, torn neck ligaments and a fractured C5 vertebrae.^[15][18]

Priaulx set the early pace in the second half-hour practice session, which took place in hot and clear weather on Friday morning, and he held the top spot until Wirdheim set the first sub 2:15 lap. The order continuously changed but practice's opening minutes did not have anyone record a sub 2:14 time.^[19] Monteiro adjusted his car's set-up to set the fastest lap time of 2:13.241, 0.112 seconds faster than Sato, who was quick throughout due to a car set-up change.^[20] Tréluyer was third after a mid-session collision with the wall. Positions four through ten were held by Cochet, Kaffer,  Fukuda, Wirdheim, de Oliviera, Toccacelo and Priaulx.^[19]

The second 45-minute qualifying session on Friday afternoon was held in clear, hot and breezy weather. Provisional pole sitter Montin led early with the first sub 2:13 lap.^[21] Wirdheim prepared by inspecting and filming 20 laps of the track on VHS tape in a hire car with his race engineer early Tuesday morning.^[21][22] He attributed this to his efforts to take pole position from Montin, but Tréluyer quickly took it. Fukuda then set a new fastest lap before the session was stop due to Hackett's crash into the wall, which was recovered by track marshals. Wirdheim, Tréluyer, and Cochet traded pole before Wirdheim clinched it with a 2:11.983 lap,^[21] which the motorsport press considered surprising.^[21][23] Sato improved from ninth to join Wirdheim on the grid's front row in the final ten minutes, but he did not earn pole position because he swerved to avoid hitting Ho's car at the exit to Fisherman's Bend corner.^[21][23] Cochet failed to respond to Wirdheim and Sato's pace, remaining third. Montin dropped to fourth after failing to regain the necessary speed to rejoin the top three. He was just ahead of Tréluyer in fifth.^[23] Priaulx improved to sixth in second qualifying's last minute. Matsuura moved to seventh, as Monteiro and Fukuda fell to eighth ninth, respectively. Kaffer was tenth.^[21] Behind him the rest of the field lined up as Kaneishi, Ide, Toccacelo, Hayes, Jouanny, de Oliviera, Sundberg, Taylor, Gommendy, Kurosawa, Lee, Kovalainen, Giammaria, Yamamoto, Bobbi, Ho, Hackett, Lei and Merszei.^[1]

Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold.

Final qualifying classification

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Q1 Time	Rank	Q2 Time	Rank	Gap	Grid
1	27	Björn Wirdheim	Prema Powerteam	2:14.891	13	2:11.983	1	—	1
2	6	Takuma Sato	Carlin Motorsport	2:13.546	2	2:12.062	2	+0.079	2
3	25	Jonathan Cochet	Signature Team	2:13.676	3	2:12.212	3	+0.229	3
4	12	Paolo Montin	TOM'S	2:13.214	1	2:12.432	4	+0.449	4
5	3	Benoît Tréluyer	Mugen x Dome Project	2:14.383	9	2:12.487	5	+0.504	5
6	30	Andy Priaulx	Andy Priaulx	2:14.375	8	2:12.581	6	+0.598	6
7	28	Kosuke Matsuura	Prema Powerteam	2:14.483	10	2:12.718	7	+0.735	7
8	18	Tiago Monteiro	ASM Formule 3	2:13.776	4	2:12.902	8	+0.919	8
9	8	Ryō Fukuda	Saulnier Racing	2:14.047	7	2:12.948	9	+0.965	9
10	10	Pierre Kaffer	Kolles Racing	2:14.586	12	2:13.108	10	+1.125	10
11	1	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Bertram Schafer Racing	2:14.042	6	2:13.686	11	+1.703	11
12	26	Yuji Ide	Signature Team	—	29	2:13.715	12	+1.732	12
13	5	Anthony Davidson	Carlin Motorsport	2:13.839	5	—	30	+1.856	—1
14	2	Enrico Toccacelo	Bertram Schafer Racing	2:14.894	14	2:13.975	13	+1.992	13
15	15	Derek Hayes	Derek Hayes	2:16.039	15	2:13.989	14	+2.006	14
16	31	Bruce Jouanny	Bruce Jouanny	2:16.426	18	2:14.484	15	+2.501	15
17	19	João Paulo de Oliveira	Swiss Racing Team	2:14.529	11	2:14.556	16	+2.546	16
18	21	Peter Sundberg	ThreeBond Racing	2:17.363	21	2:14.994	17	+3.011	17
19	16	Mark Taylor	Manor Motorsport	15:47.588	28	2:15.439	18	+3.456	18
20	17	Tristan Gommendy	ASM Formule 3	2:16.643	19	2:15.485	19	+3.502	19
21	20	Haruki Kurosawa	Swiss Racing Team	2:22.388	24	2:16.041	20	+4.058	20
22	9	Marchy Lee	Saulnier Racing	2:16.094	16	2:16.117	21	+4.111	21
23	23	Heikki Kovalainen	Fortec Motorsport	2:16.139	17	—	29	+4.156	22
24	33	Raffaele Giammaria	Kolles Racing	—	30	2:16.773	22	+4.790	23
25	11	Sakon Yamamoto	TOM'S	2:17.188	20	—	28	+5.205	24
26	36	Matteo Bobbi	Target Racing	2:28.194	27	2:17.393	23	+5.410	25
27	32	Michael Ho	Cram Competition	2:18.890	23	2:17.612	24	+5.629	26
28	7	Peter Hackett	Carlin Motorsport	2:17.726	22	2:18.079	25	+5.743	27
29	22	Lei Kit Meng	Fortec Motorsport	2:23.472	25	2:19.504	26	+7.521	28
30	29	Jo Merszei	Cram Competition	2:26.044	26	2:24.583	27	+12.600	29
110% qualifying time: 2:25.181[1]
Source:[1][15][21]
Bold time indicates the faster of the two times that determined the grid order.

• ^1  – Anthony Davidson crashed heavily during the first qualifying session and he was declared medically unfit to take part in the race.^[18]

On the morning of the race, a half-hour warm-up session was held.^[13] Montin lapped fastest at 2:12.836, nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Sato. Positions three to ten were occupied by pole sitter Wirdheim, Fukuda, Priaulx, Cochet, de Oliviera, Kaffer and the Japanese pair of Kaneishi and Matsuura.^[1]