The streets of Macau received international recognition again as they were part of the FIA GT World Cup for the first time since 2019, and Raffaele Marciello is enjoying his final weekend as a Mercedes factory driver doing what he knows best, which driving fast and winning, as the No. 48 Landgraf Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo was firm in position over the whole Qualifying race.
Usually, at Macau, if you don’t get passed at Mandarim via slipstream, being the pole position works well to hold the lead of the race, which happened pretty fine for the Swiss driver, in time for the Safety Car to enter following race ending crashes from Matteo Cairoli and DTM champion Thomas Preining.
It took three laps of Safety Car for the cleaning process to be concluded, but once it was done it was green flag again, with Maro Engel hot on Marciello`s back wing, only to go wide at Lisboa and timble down miserably.
Marciello was keeping the lead without allowing Engel to come close, and with 5 laps to go another yellow flag was called as Adderly Fong’s Audi went wide at Mandarim, collided with the outside barrier, damaged the rear end and then went to inside barrier where it crashed spectacularly, which eventually turned into a red flag due to extensive damage.
After more cleaning being done, the cars were sent out again under Safety Car procedure with 2 laps left to do something, and while Edoardo Mortara was trying to throw Engel at Marciello, the Swiss was simply too fast to be disrupted from his current position, with him only having to bring it home to take victory while Engel and Mortara completed the podium.
FIA GT World Cup - Qualifying Race results
Worth notice was that Sheldon van der Linde was one of the few able to make and overtake, ending in fifth, while Macau debutant Daniel Serra ended in sixth with the Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
PHOTO: Macau Grand Prix
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