2004 Macau Grand Prix

The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three (F3) race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and has been termed the territory's most prestigious international sporting event.^[2][3] The Macau Grand Prix was held for the 51st time in 2004, and the 22nd time under F3 rules. It was held on the 6.2 km (3.9 mi) 22 turn Guia Circuit on 21 November 2004 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying.^[4][5]

Drivers had to race in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship meeting during 2004, either in the Formula 3 Euro Series or one of the domestic championships, with the highest-placed drivers receiving priority in being invited to the race.^[6] Each of the three major F3 series had a champion on the 32-car grid.^[7][8] Formula 3 Euro Series champion Jamie Green was joined in Macau by the British champion Nelson Piquet Jr., Japanese series victor Ronnie Quintarelli, Italian champion Matteo Cressoni and Asian series winner Christian Jones.^[8] Ho-Pin Tung was the sole driver representing the German series in Macau.^[7] Five competitors who did not compete in any F3 championship during the year received invitations to the Grand Prix from race organisers.^[6] They were Formula BMW Asia series winner Marchy Lee,^[9] and Macau natives Jo Merszei, Michael Ho, Lei Kit Meng and Rodolfo Ávila.^[7]

After holding the race over two legs since its inception in 1983, the Macau Grand Prix Committee changed the format in 2004 to a ten-lap qualification race on Saturday afternoon, which determined the starting order for the Grand Prix itself the following day. Furthermore, any driver who retired from the qualification race could start at the back of the grid for the main event and still possibly win. In previous years, any driver who did not complete every lap of the first leg could not win overall.^[5] Macau Grand Prix Committee co-coordinator João Manuel Costa Antunes said the changes were made to simplify the Grand Prix for racing fans, increase tension over the weekend, and provide a greater incentive for drivers to push hard without fear of losing their chance of victory.^[5]

There were two 30-minute practice sessions prior to Sunday's race: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning.^[4] In the first practice session, ThreeBond Racing's Fábio Carbone lapped fastest at 2 minutes, 15.216 seconds, six-tenths of a second faster than Richard Antinucci in second.^[10] Lewis Hamilton (participating as a free agent after his contract with McLaren had expired),^[11] Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Kazuki Nakajima, Quintarelli, Danny Watts, Alexandre Prémat and Naoki Yokomizo were third to tenth.^[1][10] Hamilton's front wheel nut loosened, preventing him from checking his mirrors due to poor visibility. He entered the pit lane to have the problem fixed. After swerving to avoid hitting Álvaro Parente, Kubica grazed a barrier at Lisboa corner. Kubica then understeered into the Melco hairpin wall after running wide on cement laid to clear oil left from a support series.^[10]

Qualifying was divided into two 45-minute sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon, and the second on Friday afternoon.^[4] Each driver's fastest time from either session counted toward their final starting place in the qualification race.^[6] The start of the first qualifying session was delayed by 15 minutes due to multiple accidents during practice for the GT Tires Asian Formula Renault Challenge and CTM Touring Car Cup races.^[12] When it did begin in warm and sunny weather,^[12] Hamilton never relinquished his early lead as he improved his lap time to 2 minutes, 12.344 seconds. He narrowly avoided crashing into a wall after going wide onto some dust.^[13][14] Green was consistently fast, with his fastest lap coming on his final attempt. He was second, but more than a second behind Hamilton.^[14] Carbone, the 2003 pole sitter, was third, with Antinucci moving up to fourth in the final minutes.^[12] Watts was second early on but dropped to fifth by the end after saving a set of tyres for Friday.^[12][14] Rosberg finished sixth, ahead of Franck Perera and Nakajima. Both Quintarelli and Parente were in the top five early on but finished ninth and tenth.^[12] Adam Carroll was the fastest driver who did not set a top ten lap, followed by his British compatriot James Rossiter. Prémat, Nokomizo, Loïc Duval, Piquet, Rob Austin, Katsuyuki Hiranaka, Tung, Kubica, Ho, Cressoni, Daisuke Ikeda, Lee, Jones, Lucas di Grassi, Marko Asmer, Éric Salignon, Lei, Avila, Merszei and Giedo van der Garde completed the provisional starting order.^[13] Van Der Garde crashed on his out-lap at San Francisco Bend corner, removing two wheels.^[12] The first red flag came a third of the way through as Salignon crashed at Maternity Bend turn and needed extricating. After a short interval, Kubica, Lee, di Grassi, Ikeda and Asmer stopped at the Melco hairpin and track marshals moved their cars. A second red flag came with ten minutes left as Parente heavily damaged his car against the Teddy Yip Bend corner wall.^[12][14]

Kubica was consistently fast in the second half-hour practice session, lapping fastest at 2 minutes, 12.303 seconds. Hamilton made some changes to his car but was 0.646 seconds slower in second. Carbone, Antinucci, Prémat, Green, Perera, Rosberg, Rossiter and Quintarelli completed the top ten ahead of second qualifying.^[1][15] Although the session did not require a stoppage, three minor incidents occurred: Jones lost control of his vehicle at Moorish Hill corner, and Van der Garde and Carroll were caught off guard at the same turn, but all three did not sustain significant damage to their car. Nakajima collided with a wall just before the Melco hairpin.^[15]

The second qualifying session was delayed when a car appeared to be stuck at the Melco hairpin, forcing everyone else to scramble for space on the narrow section of track. Lei crashed into a wall at Faraway turn 12 minutes in and was about to recover when Avila hit him. This triggered the session's first red flag since the circuit became impassable.^[16][17] As drivers began lapping faster, Salignon triggered the second red flags as he crashed into the Maternity Bend corner wall trying to avoid Kubica.^[16] The final red flag flew as Nakajima ran wide at the R-Bend turn, spun into a wall, ricocheted into the track's centre, and littered debris. Hamilton did not improve because of the session interruptions and him causing a multi-car accident at the Melco hairpin.^[16][17] With a lap of 2 minutes, 12.155 seconds, his teammate Kubica became the first Polish driver to claim pole position in Macau in the final five minutes.^[17][18] Hamilton joined Kubica on the grid's front row and Anuticci gained one place at the session's end to start from third. Rosberg claimed fourth and Piquet moved eleven places from the first qualifying session to take fifth.^[16][17] Although Green and Carbone lapped faster, they fell to sixth and seventh. Prémat and di Grassi moved to eighth and tenth and separated Nakajima in ninth.^[16] Behind them the rest of the field composed of Watts, Duval, Perera, Parente, Quintarelli, Yokomizo, Rossiter, Carroll, Salignon, Hiranaka, Austin, Ikeda, Cressoni, Asmer, Lee, Van der Garde, Tung, Jones, Ho, Avila, Lei and Merszei.^[18]

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	22	Robert Kubica	Manor Motorsport	2:17.217	20	2:12.155	1		1
2	21	Lewis Hamilton	Manor Motorsport	2:12.344	1	2:12.415	2	+0.189	2
3	23	Richard Antinucci	TOM'S	2:13.791	4	2:12.512	3	+0.357	3
4	6	Nico Rosberg	Team Rosberg	2:14.331	6	2:12.725	4	+0.570	4
5	7	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Piquet Sports	2:15.297	16	2:12.834	5	+0.679	5
6	8	Jamie Green	ASM Formule 3	2:13.372	2	2:13.051	6	+0.896	6
7	30	Fábio Carbone	ThreeBond Racing	2:13.786	3	2:13.093	7	+0.938	7
8	9	Alexandre Prémat	ASM Formule 3	2:14.776	13	2:13.132	8	+0.977	8
9	24	Kazuki Nakajima	TOM'S	2:14.345	8	2:13.160	9	+1.005	9
10	26	Lucas di Grassi	Hitech Racing	2:19.286	26	2:13.817	10	+1.662	10
11	25	Danny Watts	Hitech Racing	2:14.161	5	2:14.285	11	+2.006	11
12	2	Loïc Duval	Signature Team	2:15.263	15	2:14.283	12	+2.128	12
13	14	Franck Perera	Prema Powerteam	2:14.336	7	2:14.900	13	+2.181	13
14	18	Álvaro Parente	Carlin Motorsport	2:14.435	10	2:14.350	14	+2.195	14
15	4	Ronnie Quintarelli	Inging	2:14.400	9	2:15.377	15	+2.245	15
16	5	Naoki Yokomizo	Inging	2:14.849	14	2:14.435	16	+2.280	16
17	3	James Rossiter	Signature Team	2:14.655	12	2:14.543	17	+2.388	17
18	11	Adam Carroll	Menu F3 Motorsport	2:14.597	11	2:14.835	18	+2.442	18
19	10	Éric Salignon	ASM Formule 3	2:20.727	28	2:14.597	19	+2.442	19
20	15	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	Prema Powerteam	2:16.623	18	2:15.010	20	+2.855	20
21	12	Rob Austin	Menu F3 Motorsport	2:16.088	17	2:15.167	21	+3.012	21
22	32	Daisuke Ikeda	Swiss Racing Team	2:18.588	23	2:15.230	22	+3.075	22
23	16	Matteo Cressoni	Ombra Racing	2:17.875	22	2:15.291	23	+3.136	23
24	19	Marko Asmer	Carlin Motorsport	2:19.600	27	2:15.824	24	+3.669	24
25	33	Marchy Lee	Promatecme	2:18.979	24	2:16.225	25	+4.070	25
26	1	Giedo van der Garde	Signature Team	No time	32	2:16.712	26	+4.557	26
27	27	Ho-Pin Tung	Hitech Racing	2:16.993	19	2:16.744	27	+4.589	27
28	28	Christian Jones	TME Racing	2:19.280	25	2:16.871	28	+4.716	28
29	29	Michael Ho	TME Racing	2:17.814	21	2:19.482	29	+5.659	29
30	20	Rodolfo Ávila	Carlin Motorsport	2:22.576	30	2:20.074	30	+7.919	30
31	17	Lei Kit Meng	Ombra Racing	2:21.298	29	2:22.636	31	+9.143	31
32	31	Jo Merszei	Swiss Racing Team	2:24.250	31	2:23.963	32	+11.808	32
110% qualifying time: 2:25.390[1]
Bold time indicates the faster of the two times that determined the grid order.
Source:[1]

A ten-minute warm-up session was held on the morning of the qualifying race.^[19] Hamilton maintained his strong form to pace the session with a time of 2 minutes, 12.904 seconds, more than two seconds faster than anyone else in the session's early stages. His closest challenger was Carbone in second place. Kubica, Rosberg, Duval, Watts, Di Grassi, Antinucci, Piquet and Nakajima followed in the top ten.^[1][19]

The qualifying race to set the starting order for the main race began in dry, sunny weather on 20 November at 14:00 Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00).^[4][1] Hamilton made a strong start to slipstream of his teammate Kubica, who was on the inside line entering Reservoir turn. Hamilton steered left to scare Kubica into slowing and took the lead on the approach to Mandarin Bend, which he maintained entering Lisboa turn.^[20] Further back, a series of incidents on the grid called for the safety car's deployment for four laps.^[21] Antinucci was slow to leave his starting position, so Piquet went to the right to pass him, but the manoeuvre resulted in him removing his car's left-front wheel.^[22] When Nakajima stalled in his grid slot, the rear of his vehicle was hit by Salignon, who then speared into a barrier alongside the track just after the start/finish line, causing a larger accident.^[21][22] Tung glimpsed space to drive through but he was launched airborne after striking the rear of Lee's car, who aggressively turned to the right as Avila got collected.^[22][23]

With debris on the track, the remaining drivers were cautious across the start/finish line and avoided sharp debris to avoid a punctured tyre. Under the safety car, Piquet returned to the pit lane without a fully attached front-left wheel and he retired because his team could not repair it before the race's conclusion.^[22] Salignon was trapped in his car and needed help from course officials. This was attributed to the safety car's prolonged presence on the circuit.^[20][21][22] He was later transported to a local hospital for precautionary observations before being released with no major injuries found. Meanwhile, circuit marshals used a crane to lift the cars off the track and spread cement dust. Hamilton held the lead at the lap five restart and Rosberg passed Kubica into Mandarin Bend corner. Carroll challenged and overtook Perera for eleventh before the end of the fifth lap and set to draw closer to Rossiter. Green passed Carbone for fourth place. Carbone attempted to reclaim fourth but Green's defended the place.^[22] Prémat pushed hard and got close to a barrier at Maternity Bend before passing Kubica on the drive to Lisboa turn on lap six.^[20][22]

Duval led a pack of cars further down the order as Rossiter passed Watts (who had front wing damage) and the latter battled Perera. Both were slipstreaming each other on the circuit's main straights. But when Antinucci got involved, things went wrong, and Carroll passed Watts going into Lisboa corner on lap seven. This caught Antinucci off guard, forcing him to take the turn's escape road. Antinucci could not restart his car, and marshals extricated it.^[22] Hamilton set the race's fastest lap on lap nine at 2 minutes and 12.801 seconds to lead by 2.2 seconds and win the race for pole position in the Grand Prix itself.^[1][21] Rosberg finished second, with Prémat completing the podium in third. Kubica held off Green in the final stages to finish fourth. Behind them Carbone, Duval, di Grassi, Rossiter, Watts, Carroll, Perera, Hiranaka, Austin, Yokomizo, Quintarelli, Parente, Ikeda, Asmer, Cressoni, Van Der Garde, Jones, Ho, Lei and Merszei were the final classified finishers.^[20][21]

Final qualifying race classification

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	21	Lewis Hamilton	Manor Motorsport	10	33:16.057	2
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Team Rosberg	10	+2.284	4
3	9	Alexandre Prémat	ASM Formule 3	10	+3.982	8
4	22	Robert Kubica	Manor Motorsport	10	+4.984	1
5	8	Jamie Green	ASM Formule 3	10	+5.454	6
6	30	Fábio Carbone	ThreeBond Racing	10	+7.551	7
7	2	Loïc Duval	Signature Team	10	+17.289	12
8	26	Lucas di Grassi	Hitech Racing	10	+18.888	10
9	3	James Rossiter	Signature Team	10	+19.439	17
10	25	Danny Watts	Hitech Racing	10	+20.513	11
11	11	Adam Carroll	Menu F3 Motorsport	10	+21.685	18
12	14	Franck Perera	Prema Powerteam	10	+23.761	13
13	15	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	Prema Powerteam	10	+24.752	20
14	12	Rob Austin	Menu F3 Motorsport	10	+25.335	21
15	5	Naoki Yokomizo	Inging	10	+26.494	16
16	4	Ronnie Quintarelli	Inging	10	+27.688	15
17	18	Álvaro Parente	Carlin Motorsport	10	+28.012	14
18	32	Daisuke Ikeda	Swiss Racing Team	10	+31.813	22
19	19	Marko Asmer	Carlin Motorsport	10	+31.990	24
20	16	Matteo Cressoni	Ombra Racing	10	+32.891	23
21	1	Giedo van der Garde	Signature Team	10	+34.658	26
22	28	Christian Jones	TME Racing	10	+55.774	28
23	29	Michael Ho	TME Racing	10	+58.889	29
24	17	Lei Kit Meng	Ombra Racing	10	+1:43.680	31
25	31	Jo Merszei	Swiss Racing Team	10	+2:01.384	32
Ret	23	Richard Antinucci	TOM'S	8	Stall	3
Ret	7	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Piquet Sports	1	Wheel	5
Ret	10	Éric Salignon	ASM Formule 3	0	Accident	19
Ret	20	Rodolfo Ávila	Carlin Motorsport	0	Accident	30
Ret	24	Kazuki Nakajima	TOM'S	0	Accident	9
Ret	27	Ho-Pin Tung	Hitech Racing	0	Accident	27
Ret	33	Marchy Lee	Promatecme	0	Accident	25
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, 2:12.801, 165.90 km/h (103.09 mph) on lap 9[1]
Source:[1]

A second 20-minute warm-up session was held on the morning of the main race.^[4] Kubica recovered from fourth in the qualifying race to lap fastest at 2 minutes, 11.485 seconds. Prémat was almost three-tenths of a second slower in second. Hamilton, Green, Rosberg, Antinucci, Rossiter, Piquet, Watts and Yokomizo completed the top ten.^[1][24] Salignon's chassis was damaged enough from his qualification race crash to be withdrawn from the race.^[25]