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Macau F3: Felix Rosenqvist claims provisional pole

Felix Rosenqvist topped the first day of qualifying for the Macau Grand Prix with a blistering lap three minutes before the end of the half-hour session

The Swede, the runner-up in this year's Formula 3 European Championship, edged out 2012 Macau GP winner Antonio Felix da Costa by just over a tenth of a second.

Rosenqvist did not get a tow on his hot lap and as a result was half a second down on his previous pace through the flat-out first sector, but was a mighty seven tenths quicker than anyone else through the tortuous middle part of the lap.

It was a strong recovery after he crashed his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes in free practice this morning.

"I screwed my tyres in free practice so I needed to put new tyres on at the start of the session," said Rosenqvist. "It was a stupid mistake but I knew what I could do.

"I feel really confident, especially in the second sector, which is really good.

"I feel with a slipstream I could improve quite a lot, and I was still leaving a bit of margin in the last two corners."

Da Costa felt as though he had fully got to grips with his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen by the end of qualifying.

"I'm happy with today - I was just getting used to it," he said. "But this is like free practice really. The times will be a lot quicker tomorrow."

Alexander Sims headed an all-British second row in the ThreeBond/Nissan-powered T-Sport Dallara from Carlin runner Harry Tincknell.

Pipo Derani was fifth in his Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Merc, ahead of the Carlin machine of Carlos Sainz Jr, who needed a new gearbox after his practice shunt.

Stefano Coletti, European F3 champion Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Korjus and Jazeman Jaafar completed the top 10.

It was a bad session for 2012 poleman Alex Lynn, who was 26th in the times after crashing at Fisherman's Bend.

Prema team-mate Esteban Ocon also failed to finish the session on his debut in a current F3 car: he brushed the wall and was forced to pull off the track.

The session was red-flagged with a minute and a half remaining after Japanese champion Yuichi Nakayama crashed heavily at the Solitude Esses. The TOM'S driver was unhurt.

Lucas Wolf did not take part after his crash in morning practice.

Pos Driver                  Team/Car                        Time        Gap  
 1. Felix Rosenqvist        Mucke Dallara-Merc              2m12.751s
 2. Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin Dallara-VW               2m12.862s  +0.111s
 3. Alexander Sims          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan          2m13.196s  +0.445s
 4. Harry Tincknell         Carlin Dallara-VW               2m13.518s  +0.767s
 5. Pipo Derani             Fortec Dallara-Merc             2m13.646s  +0.895s
 6. Carlos Sainz Jr         Carlin Dallara-VW               2m13.715s  +0.964s
 7. Stefano Coletti         Eurointernational Dallara-Merc  2m13.777s  +1.026s
 8. Raffaele Marciello      Prema Dallara-Merc              2m13.831s  +1.080s
 9. Kevin Korjus            Double R Dallara-Merc           2m13.870s  +1.119s
10. Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW               2m14.087s  +1.336s
11. Lucas Auer              Prema Dallara-Merc              2m14.262s  +1.511s
12. Tom Blomqvist           Fortec Dallara-Merc             2m14.315s  +1.564s
13. Jordan King             Carlin Dallara-VW               2m14.453s  +1.702s
14. Antonio Giovinazzi      Double R Dallara-Merc           2m14.506s  +1.755s
15. Yuhi Sekiguchi          Mucke Dallara-Merc              2m14.553s  +1.802s
16. Will Buller             Fortec Dallara-Merc             2m14.591s  +1.840s
17. Yuichi Nakayama         TOM'S Dallara-Toyota            2m14.664s  +1.913s
18. Esteban Ocon            Prema Dallara-Merc              2m15.119s  +2.368s
19. Katsumasa Chiyo         B-Max Dallara-Toyota            2m15.253s  +2.502s
20. Nicholas Latifi         Carlin Dallara-VW               2m15.350s  +2.599s
21. John Bryant-Meisner     Fortec Dallara-Merc             2m15.881s  +3.130s
22. Nelson Mason            Zeller Dallara-Merc             2m15.949s  +3.198s
23. Ed Jones                Fortec Dallara-Merc             2m16.094s  +3.343s
24. Dennis van de Laar      Mucke Dallara-Merc              2m16.473s  +3.722s
25. Sean Gelael             Double R Dallara-Merc           2m17.334s  +4.583s
26. Alex Lynn               Prema Dallara-Merc              2m18.088s  +5.337s
27. Sun Zheng               Double R Dallara-Merc           2m20.906s  +8.155s

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