With the sun setting at the Macau street circuit, the all-important 30-minute Qualifying session began in dry conditions. Despite the qualifying session being interrupted by two red flag incidents, the team performed flawlessly to ensure that Edoardo Mortara and Alessio Picariello were able to attack.
Edoardo Mortara in the #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was on pace for a lap that could have been on the top of the timing sheets but a small mistake meant that he qualified the Tsingtao-liveried car in P6 with a time of 2:16.316.
In the Evisu #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Macau debutant Alessio Picariello was improving with every lap throughout the session. However, whilst on his last lap, Picariello carried a bit too much speed into the last corner and lost some time, finishing the session in P13 with a 2:17.690.
The 12 lap Qualification Race starts tomorrow at 1305hrs (GMT +8) and will determine the starting order of the Main Race on Sunday.
Qualifying Results
#77 Mercedes-AMG GT3
Edoardo Mortara | P6 – 2:16.316
#88 Mercedes-AMG GT3
Alessio Picariello | P13 – 2:17.690
QUOTES
Edoardo Mortara | Driver #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3
“There were quite a lot of red flags so it came down to the last lap, but it wasn’t an ideal lap. You need to do a perfect lap to put it on pole here, and I ended up making some mistakes in the last sector which cost us a shot at pole position. Feel a little frustrated and disappointed because of this and we start 6th, which again isn’t ideal but hopefully we can make up some positions.”
Alessio Picariello | Driver #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3
“It was an interesting day, I did lots of improvements in qualifying and felt more comfortable taking more risk. It was not that easy to manage the traffic on this track and had a few hairy moments, kissing the walls a few times whilst trying to find the limits. I was satisfied with the qualifying session overall and can’t wait to race here tomorrow.”
Darryl O’Young | Director of Craft-Bamboo Racing
“The team has been doing a great job all weekend so far with lots of attention to detail. We had good performance but was a little unfortunate with the result in the end. Edoardo was on a mega lap and but had a small mistake in the last sector which meant he qualified P6. Also with Alessio, he had a good lap going but made a mistake at the final corner. For sure we are a little disappointed as we are here to win, but we won’t give up as we’ve seen Edoardo do magic here in Macau before so all eyes are on the Qualification Race tomorrow.”
Source. Craft-Bamboo Racing
Comments
