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Macau Grand Prix: Sette Camara leads Motopark 1-2-3 in first practice

Formula 2 race winner Sergio Sette Camara topped a 1-2-3 for the Motopark team in the first free practice session for the Macau Grand Prix

Sette Camara, who completed one day of testing at the Hungaroring as he readapted to F3, moved ahead of long-time leader Joel Eriksson with a few minutes remaining.

The Brazilian's time was good enough to beat Swedish BMW junior Eriksson by 0.108 seconds, with British Red Bull protege Dan Ticktum completing the top-three whitewash for the German Motopark squad.

"It was a good start," said Sette Camara, "but I'm more happy to see a Motopark 1-2-3 than with my own performance, because I helped out with the set-up.

"It's also a lot of good engineering work by the team - they did a great job and now we're just here to fine-tune.

"I struggled a bit at the start - I just wanted to keep it out of the walls, but then I took a bit more risk on one lap on my second run; eventually you do need to risk a bit!

"But it means nothing; Macau is crazy and you just have to keep calm, keep good and be around the top in every session."

Behind the Volkswagen-powered Motopark machines, Pedro Piquet was the top Mercedes-engined runner, taking fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing.

Piquet headed Carlin's Ferdinand Habsburg and Prema Powerteam's Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou, who both did a good job to head their more-fancied team-mates.

Seventh and eighth were two of the pre-race favourites, Prema star Callum Ilott heading Carlin's F3 European champion Lando Norris, who hot-footed it from his cancelled McLaren Formula 1 test at Interlagos and arrived in Macau just in time for Wednesday evening's drivers' briefing.

Top rookie was an impressive Mick Schumacher, ninth quickest for Prema on the streets where his father and uncle both triumphed in the 1990s, while B-Max Racing's Kenta Yamashita, returning to F3 after a season in Super Formula, rounded out the top 10.

Of those to hit problems, Jehan Daruvala ended the session on a flatbed truck after making minor contact with the wall at Moorish, while Maximilian Gunther lost a considerable amount of time in the pits having a gearbox glitch attended to.

Fifty-year-old 'Dragon' was another in the wars, the Japanese F3 National Class champion crashing at Police at the end of the session.

Free practice times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sergio Sette Camara Motopark with VEB Dallara/Volkswagen 2m14.808s - 13
2 Joel Eriksson Motopark with VEB Dallara/Volkswagen 2m14.916s 0.108s 13
3 Dan Ticktum Motopark with VEB Dallara/Volkswagen 2m14.995s 0.187s 13
4 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 2m15.085s 0.277s 17
5 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2m15.304s 0.496s 14
6 Guanyu Zhou SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara/Mercedes 2m15.353s 0.545s 13
7 Callum Ilott SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara/Mercedes 2m15.385s 0.577s 12
8 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2m15.434s 0.626s 12
9 Mick Schumacher SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara/Mercedes 2m16.190s 1.382s 13
10 Kenta Yamashita B-MAX Racing Team Dallara/Volkswagen 2m16.699s 1.891s 11
11 Ralf Aron Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 2m16.987s 2.179s 16
12 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2m17.359s 2.551s 14
13 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2m17.449s 2.641s 13
14 Tadasuke Makino Motopark with VEB Dallara/Volkswagen 2m17.727s 2.919s 12
15 Yuhi Sekiguchi B-MAX Racing Team Dallara/Volkswagen 2m17.791s 2.983s 9
16 Alex Palou ThreeBond Racing with Drago Corse Dallara/Threebond 2m18.000s 3.192s 14
17 Sho Tsuboi TOM'S Dallara/Toyota 2m18.180s 3.372s 17
18 Devlin Defrancesco Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2m18.267s 3.459s 14
19 Maximilian Guenther SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara/Mercedes 2m18.532s 3.724s 8
20 Marino Sato Motopark with VEB Dallara/Volkswagen 2m19.676s 4.868s 15
21 Ritomo Miyata TOM'S Dallara/Toyota 2m20.221s 5.413s 17
22 Dragon B-MAX Racing Team Dallara/Volkswagen 2m30.009s 15.201s 7


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