Lynn wins Macau qualifying race

British racer Alex Lynn stormed to victory in the qualification race for the Macau Grand Prix.

Lynn twice had to pass Felix Rosenqvist in a race that was thrilling in the opening laps, before pulling out an advantage of more than two seconds.

Poleman Raffaele Marciello bogged down at the start and had dropped to fifth by Lisboa.

A lightning getaway from Rosenqvist gave the Swede the lead, but Lynn tucked into his slipstream and pulled a brave move around the outside of the Mandarin Oriental kink.

As Rosenqvist in turn got the slipstream down to Lisboa, Lynn was forced to dive in deep on the brakes and ran wide, just keeping the car out of the barriers and conceding the lead to the Swede.

A safety car - caused by a startline crash when Tom Blomqvist stalled and was hit by Harry Tincknell - eradicated Rosenqvist's advantage.

This time Lynn judged things to perfection, pulling to the outside of Rosenqvist on the run into the Lisboa right-hander and turning in with the lead.

"I think the main positive is that the car felt really nice," said Lynn of his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes, which is backed by the Theodore Racing initiative of Teddy Yip Jr, son of the late Macau GP godfather Teddy Yip Sr.

"I made a pretty good start and the restart was good. In terms of the qualification race it was nice, but the grand prix on Sunday is another thing."

Lucas Auer ran third initially in the sister Prema/Theodore car, but at the restart he was passed into Mandarin Oriental by Antonio Felix da Costa, and then at Lisboa by Marciello.

Auer then ran into the barriers at San Francisco Bend, forcing him out of the race.

Marciello's Prema machine chased down the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen of da Costa, passing the Portuguese on the fifth lap. He then closed on Rosenqvist's Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Merc.

Rosenqvist was struggling for grip after the safety car, but in the late stages the balance came back and he set fastest lap as he pulled away to take second.

Pipo Derani was not too far behind the leading quartet to uphold honour for the Fortec Motorsport squad, hit by the Blomqvist disappointment, with fifth.

Alexander Sims (T-Sport Dallara-Nissan) just held off Carlin-run Macau rookie Jordan King in the fight for sixth, with the Fortec car of Will Buller just behind.

Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz Jr and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 after both passed Stefano Coletti. Frenchman Ocon, in his first start in a current F3 car, set a fastest lap just a tenth of a second slower than Prema team-mate Lynn's.

The other retirements were Dennis van de Laar - who also failed to get going at the start - Ed Jones, who crashed at Fisherman's Bend, and Kevin Korjus, who ground to a smoky halt with one lap remaining.

Results - 10 laps:

Pos Driver                  Team/Car                           Time/Gap  
 1. Alex Lynn               Prema Dallara-Merc               24m41.968s
 2. Felix Rosenqvist        Mucke Dallara-Merc                  +2.411s
 3. Raffaele Marciello      Prema Dallara-Merc                  +3.461s
 4. Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin Dallara-VW                   +4.089s
 5. Pipo Derani             Fortec Dallara-Merc                 +7.620s
 6. Alexander Sims          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan             +10.620s
 7. Jordan King             Carlin Dallara-VW                  +10.958s
 8. Will Buller             Fortec Dallara-Merc                +11.691s
 9. Carlos Sainz Jr         Carlin Dallara-VW                  +13.045s
10. Esteban Ocon            Prema Dallara-Merc                 +14.713s
11. Stefano Coletti         Eurointernational Dallara-Merc     +15.853s
12. Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW                  +17.068s
13. Nicholas Latifi         Carlin Dallara-VW                  +30.339s
14. Yuhi Sekiguchi          Mucke Dallara-Merc                 +30.990s
15. Antonio Giovinazzi      Double R Dallara-Merc              +34.049s
16. Lucas Wolf              URD Dallara-Mercedes               +35.563s
17. Sean Gelael             Double R Dallara-Merc              +36.620s
18. Yuichi Nakayama         TOM'S Dallara-Toyota               +38.920s
19. Katsumasa Chiyo         B-Max Dallara-Toyota               +40.040s
20. John Bryant-Meisner     Fortec Dallara-Merc                +40.503s
21. Sun Zheng               Double R Dallara-Merc            +1m06.786s
22. Nelson Mason            Zeller Dallara-Merc              +1m11.265s
23. Kevin Korjus            Double R Dallara-Merc                +1 lap

Retirements:

    Lucas Auer              Prema Dallara-Merc                   2 laps
    Ed Jones                Fortec Dallara-Merc                  2 laps
    Tom Blomqvist           Fortec Dallara-Merc                  0 laps
    Harry Tincknell         Carlin Dallara-VW                    0 laps
    Dennis van de Laar      Mucke Dallara-Merc                   0 laps