Ferrari’s Fuoco Eases to Macau Qualifying Race Victory

Antonio Fuoco took a straightforward lights-to-flag victory in Saturday’s FIA World GT Cup Qualifying Race in Macau, as he and Yifei Ye converted Ferrari’s sweep of the front row into a lockout of the top two positions.

In what proved to be a relatively uneventful 12-lap race that did not feature any caution periods, the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Fuoco came through for a 2.543-second win over the No. 83 Harmony Racing car of Ye.

Fuoco survived the initial threat of the run down to Lisboa on the opening lap with his lead in tact, and initially raced to a four-second advantage over Ye before allowing the gap to drop back under three seconds on the fourth lap.

The order of the top six didn’t change despite the ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Raffaele Marciello getting a fast run through Mandarin to challenge both Ye’s Ferrari and Alessio Picariello’s Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R at the start.

Stuck on the outside line for Lisboa, Marciello tucked back in behind Ye and Picariello as several cars behind were caught up in Macau’s typical first-lap drama.

Christopher Haase nosed into the barriers at Lisboa in his Audi Sport Asia car, while Lamborghini driver Edoardo Mortara — who started tenth after losing his best effort in Super Pole — appeared to outbrake himself and ended up deep in the run-off.

Benjamin Goethe’s McLaren and Sheldon van der Linde’s BMW were also delayed, but all four cars were able to continue and the safety car was not needed.

Behind an unstoppable Fuoco, Picariello stuck close to Ye’s tail for the remainder of the race, but never appeared to get a real chance to pass the Ferrari driver, with the Porsche driver ending up just six tenths of a second behind at the finish.

Marciello faded in the latter stages, finishing four seconds behind the top three, and only one second ahead of Joel Eriksson’s Phantom Global-run Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

DTM champion and Macau debutant Ayhancan Guven was sixth in his Schumacher CLRT Porsche, but the battle for seventh between his teammate Laurin Heinrich and Luca Engstler’s Lamborghini provided most of the late-race entertainment.

Despite Heinrich coming close to a pass on multiple occasions, Engstler held on for seventh in the best of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s, with Heinrich eighth ahead of Dorian Boccolacci’s Phantom Global Porsche.

Deng Yi completed the top ten in the second Harmony Racing Ferrari.

Laurens Vanthoor was another driver to lose out in the Turn 1 melee in the second of the Absolute Porsches, the Belgian driver ending up where he started in 11th.

Sunday’s Main Race is due to begin at 12:35 p.m. local time (Saturday 11:35 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying Race