2017 FIA GT World Cup

The 2017 FIA GT World Cup was the third edition of the event and the tenth time overall that GT3 cars had competed in Macau. It took place at the 6.2 km (3.9 mi) 22-turn Guia Circuit on 19 November 2017 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying.[2] After the 2016 iteration in which an accident involving Laurens Vanthoor curtailed the race and constraints to its timetable meant all scheduled laps could not be completed, the FIA moved the first race of the 2017 Guia Race of Macau from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon to allow for the increased possibility that the race would run for all its 18 scheduled laps.[3] Manufacturer-supported teams fielding professional drivers rated platinum or gold were allowed to compete as part of the race organiser's Stéphane Ratel Organisation objective to have a World Cup event for professionals and one for amateurs.[3][4] Safety and trackside recovery procedures were enhanced.[4] The Guia Circuit was modified after the 2016 race: several kerbs at turns one and two were modified for safety purposes and TecPro energy absorption barriers were installed.[5][6]

In order to enter the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship race based on GT3 regulations in the previous two seasons or have significant experience in Grand Touring (GT) cars.[7] Only drivers holding a platinum or a gold racing license could enter with silver ranked drivers eligible on a case by case basis at the FIA GT World Cup Committee's discretion. Bronze rated competitors were not allowed to compete.[7]

The entry list was released on 24 October 2017. A total of 20 drivers from 13 countries representing seven manufacturers (Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche) competed.[8][9] It had the event's defending winner Laurens Vanthoor, 2016–17 Formula E series winner Lucas di Grassi, 2016 FIA World Endurance co-champion Romain Dumas, Blancpain GT Series champion Mirko Bortolotti, two-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Marco Wittmann, Supercars Championship racer and 2014 Bathurst 1000 co-winner Chaz Mostert.[8][9][5]

Edoardo Mortara (pictured in 2014) took his second successive pole position in Macau and he went on to win the Qualifying Race and the Main Race.

Two practice sessions lasting half an hour were held before the race on Sunday: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning.[10] In the first practice session, Maro Engel's No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing car was fastest with a time of 2 minutes, 18.948 seconds on his final lap. Raffaele Marciello in the sister No. 888 car was second, Edoardo Mortara's No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy third, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 of Felix Rosenqvist fourth and Robin Frijns in the No. 1 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS fifth.[11] Daniel Juncadella, Markus Pommer, Augusto Farfus, Nico Müller and Darryl O'Young filled positions six through ten.[1] Di Grassi lost control of the rear of his car with ten minutes to go and glanced a barrier alongside the circuit in the track's mountain section but continued with minor damage.[12]

Frijns led the second practice session with a 2 minutes, 18.507 seconds lap, ahead of Audi brandmate Pommer in second.[13] Farfus, Juncadella, Müller, Engel, Marciello, di Grassi, Bortolotti and Vanthoor completed the top ten drivers.[1] At more than 250 km/h (160 mph), Pommer spun through 360 degrees on the kerb at the inside of Mandarin Bend corner. He narrowly avoided striking the wall and no interruption to proceedings was needed.[13][14] Fabian Plentz caused the first stoppage after a spin but recovered to the pit lane. A second red flag came out when Hiroki Yoshimoto crashed his Porsche 911 at the Solitude Esses turn and was in a hazardous position.[14]

Friday afternoon's half hour qualifying session determined the starting order for the qualification race through each driver's fastest lap times.[7][10] In fading light, Mercedes-AMG took the first four places as Mortara led for the majority of qualifying to take his second consecutive pole position in Macau with a lap of 2 minutes, 17.565 seconds that he set in its final minutes.[15][16] He was joined on the grid's front row by his teammate Juncadella and the two Team GruppeM Racing cars of Engel and Marciello were third and fourth.[17] Müller was the highest-placed Audi driver in fifth and was eight-thousands of a second adrift of Marciello.[15] Farfus in the No. 18 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 qualified sixth ahead of his brandmate Tom Blomqvist's No. 99 Rowe Racing car in seventh.[18] Pommer was the highest-placed silver ranked driver in eighth.[15] Vanthoor's No. 911 Craft-Bamboo Racing car and di Grassi in HCB-Rutronik Racing's No. 11 vehicle rounded out the top ten qualifiers.[15]

Rosenqvist was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten as a result of a car set-up error.[16] The No. 84 Honda NSX of Renger van der Zande was 12th and Wittmann's No. 91 FIST Team AAI car took 13th. The sole Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bortolotti, the Porsches of Dumas and O'Young, the Audis of Frijns and Plentz and Mostert's BMW were the last drivers to set a qualifying lap.[1] Yoshimoto did not record a lap time because his team could not repair his car following his crash in the second practice session.[1] Although the session passed without the need for a red flag, two drivers had incidents.[16] Frijns hit a wall at Fisherman's Bend corner due to an anti-lock braking system fault but he drove slowly back to the pit lane for repairs.[15][19] At the end of the session, Vanthoor lost control of his car and crashed into the inside barrier at Fisherman's Bend turn.[15] After qualifying, the FIA altered the balance of performance in an attempt to create parity. The weight of the Mercedes-AMGs were increased from 1,330 kg (2,930 lb) to 1,360 kg (3,000 lb) and the Honda NSX had its weight increased from 1,275 kg (2,811 lb) to 1,280 kg (2,820 lb).[19]

Qualifying classification

Final qualifying classification Pos. Class No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Gap 1 P 48 Edoardo Mortara Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy Mercedes-Benz 2:17.565 — 2 P 50 Daniel Juncadella Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy Mercedes-Benz 2:17.847 +0.282 3 P 999 Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-Benz 2:17.946 +0.381 4 P 888 Raffaele Marciello Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-Benz 2:17.998 +0.433 5 P 2 Nico Müller Audi Sport Team WRT Audi 2:18.006 +0.441 6 P 18 Augusto Farfus BMW Team Schnitzer BMW 2:18.075 +0.510 7 P 99 Tom Blomqvist Rowe Racing BMW 2:18.306 +0.741 8 S 27 Markus Pommer Aust Motorsport Audi 2:18.604 +1.039 9 P 911 Laurens Vanthoor Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche 2:18.657 +1.092 10 P 11 Lucas di Grassi HCB-Rutronik-Racing Audi 2:18.837 +1.272 11 P 63 Felix Rosenqvist Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 2:18.917 +1.352 12 P 84 Renger van der Zande Honda Racing Honda 2:19.231 +1.666 13 P 91 Marco Wittmann FIST Team AAI BMW 2:19.272 +1.707 14 P 5 Mirko Bortolotti FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini 2:19.396 +1.831 15 P 7 Romain Dumas HubAuto Racing Porsche 2:20.072 +2.507 16 G 991 Darryl O'Young Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche 2:20.128 +2.563 17 P 1 Robin Frijns Audi Sport Team WRT Audi 2:20.587 +3.022 18 S 12 Fabian Plentz HCB-Rutronik-Racing Audi 2:21.472 +3.907 19 G 90 Chaz Mostert FIST Team AAI BMW 2:24.076 +6.511 20 G 77 Hiroki Yoshimoto HubAuto Racing Porsche No time[N 1] — Source:[1][20]

Categorisation Icon Class P Platinum G Gold S Silver

Raffaele Marciello (pictured in 2017) avoided a 16-car multi-car accident that stopped the Qualification Race for more than an hour.

The qualifying race to set the grid order for the main race started under overcast but dry weather at 12:25 Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00) on 18 November.[7][10][1] At the rolling start, Mortara lost the lead to his Mercedes-AMG brandmate Engel into Lisboa corner. One of Mortara's other brandmates Juncadella tried to do the same on the outside but he knocked his steering arm out of alignment from contact with an outside barrier at Reservoir Bend turn.[21][22][23] As the field went into the right-hand Police Bend corner, considered one of the track's narrowest sections and a blind turn,[24] Juncadella's handling put him wide into an barrier at the exit of the turn.[22][23] Marciello narrowly avoided colliding with Juncadella but Vanthoor was unsighted and he understeered into the right-rear corner of Juncadella's stalled car.[23] This created a road block that nobody in the tightly-packed field could avoid, as drivers who were behind Juncadella at the time had a domino effect accident, which piled them into each other.[22][25][26] Di Grassi was close by Pommer and his car was suspended on Wittmann's bonnet.[25]

No driver was seriously injured in the crash but the race was immediately suspended for more than an hour for circuit clearing by track marshals and cranes on the right of the circuit were used to extricate cars.[23][27][28] There were four uninvolved drivers in the accident, while four more damaged cars were deemed repairable and returned to the track. The race restarted behind the safety car at 13:20 local time with 25 minutes left.[21][27] Engel did not lead the restart because his car failed to start in the pit lane due to a battery failure and his brandmate Mortara led.[29][30] Once racing resumed on lap three,[31] Mortara immediately began establishing a small lead over Farfus who pressured him but could not affect an overtake.[29] Thus, Mortara crossed the start/finish line after 11 laps to win the qualification race and began the main race from pole position. Farfus followed 1.566 seconds later in second and Marciello completed the podium in third. Off the podium, Frijns pressured Maricello but took fourth. Mostert, O'Young, Yoshimoto and Engel were the final classified finishers.[31]

Qualifying race classification

Final classification of the qualifying race

Pos.	Class	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired
1	P	48	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy	Mercedes-Benz	11	1:16:04.01
2	P	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	11	+1.566
3	P	888	Raffaele Marciello	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-Benz	11	+2.794
4	P	1	Robin Frijns	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	11	+4.974
5	G	90	Chaz Mostert	FIST Team AAI	BMW	11	+7.129
6	G	991	Darryl O'Young	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	11	+34.873
7	G	77	Hiroki Yoshimoto	HubAuto Racing	Porsche	11	+1:01.611
8	P	999	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-Benz	10	+1 Lap
Ret	P	50	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy	Mercedes-Benz	0	Accident
Ret	P	2	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	0	Accident
Ret	P	99	Tom Blomqvist	Rowe Racing	BMW	0	Accident
Ret	S	27	Markus Pommer	Aust Motorsport	Audi	0	Accident
Ret	P	911	Laurens Vanthoor	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	0	Accident
Ret	P	11	Lucas di Grassi	HCB-Rutronik-Racing	Audi	0	Accident
Ret	P	63	Felix Rosenqvist	Scuderia Corsa	Ferrari	0	Accident
Ret	P	84	Renger van der Zande	Honda Racing	Honda	0	Accident
Ret	P	91	Marco Wittmann	FIST Team AAI	BMW	0	Accident
Ret	P	5	Mirko Bortolotti	FFF Racing Team by ACM	Lamborghini	0	Accident
Ret	P	7	Romain Dumas	HubAuto Racing	Porsche	0	Accident
Ret	S	12	Fabian Plentz	HCB-Rutronik-Racing	Audi	0	Accident
Source:[1][20]

The race commenced on a damp track and in overcast weather at 12:10 local time on 19 November.[10][1] Many teams worked overnight to repair the structural damage sustained to their cars in the qualification race accident for their drivers to partake in the main event. However, Blomqvist, Bortolotti, Pommer, Plentz, Rosenqvist and Vanthoor's cars could not be repaired by their respective teams in Macau due to the heavy amount of structural damage and were withdrawn from the race.[32] The race director elected to commence the event behind the safety car because of the damp track created by an earlier rain shower, allowing drivers to get accustomed with the changing conditions.[33][34][35] The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap two and drivers were allowed to overtake.[36] Mortara made a clean getaway from the rolling start but went slightly wide at Reservoir Bend corner and hit the outside wall leaving the corner. He was untroubled however as Farfus could not get close enough to challenge the Mercedes AMG. Farfus moved to the inside lane but was rammed from behind by Marciello at Lisboa turn. Farfus consequently lost third to Marciello.[33][37]

Farfus slowed, hit an barrier and the car's boot cover lifted.[37] Marciello sustained damage to his car's radiator and he drove into the pit lane at the beginning of lap four to retire with smoke bellowing from its front.[33] Engel overtook Yoshimoto and O'Young to move into sixth.[35] In the meantime, Mortara increased his lead to six seconds as a result of the contact between Farfus and Marciello.[37] On the sixth lap, track marshals waved a black flag with an orange disc to Farfus, instructing him to enter the pit lane and mend the loose car bodywork.[36] The safety car was deployed on the same lap when di Grassi hit the barrier through the Solitude Esses at high speed. He stopped his car in the mountain section soon after.[34][37] Farfus made his pit stop under the safety car for the removal of his boot cover and fell to the rear of the field.[34] Three laps were spent under safety car conditions and Mortara kept his lead at the restart.[37] Engel was promoted to fourth when Farfus made his pit stop and he overtook Mostert on the outside at Lisboa corner for third.[30][33][38] Half a lap later, O'Young crashed on cold tyres leaving the hill to the right-hand San Francisco Bend turn and was hit by Müller who spun him into an barrier.[33][37]

The safety car was deployed until the conclusion of lap eleven to allow O'Young's car to be removed from the circuit. Mortara maintained his lead at the restart with Frijns second. Engel slipstreamed Frijns to remain with him.[33][37] Mostert slid wide after exiting the Solitude Esses and the error allowed the recovering Farfus to overtake him for fourth.[30] Engel spent the next few laps close by Frijns but the latter established a rhythm and began to draw closer to Mortara.[37] However, Mortara led every lap and crossed the start/finish line to claim his sixth victory in Macau by 0.618 seconds over the closing Frijns who could not overtake him.[40] Engel was third, Farfus fourth with fellow brandmates Mostert and Wittmann fifth and sixth. Dumas finished seventh, Juncadella eighth and Yoshimoto was the final classified finisher.[37] The attrition rate was moderate with nine of the fourteen starters finishing the event and the safety car was on track for a total of six laps.[35][40]

Main race classification

Final classification of the main race

Pos.	Class	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired
1	P	48	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy	Mercedes-Benz	18	51:52.822
2	P	1	Robin Frijns	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	18	+0.618
3	P	999	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-Benz	18	+1.357
4	P	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	18	+12.312
5	G	90	Chaz Mostert	FIST Team AAI	BMW	18	+13.041
6	P	91	Marco Wittmann	FIST Team AAI	BMW	18	+18.031
7	P	7	Romain Dumas	HubAuto Racing	Porsche	18	+22.616
8	P	50	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy	Mercedes-Benz	18	+23.019
9	G	77	Hiroki Yoshimoto	HubAuto Racing	Porsche	18	+54.804
Ret	P	2	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	11	Collision Damage
Ret	P	84	Renger van der Zande	Honda Racing	Honda	10	Collision Damage
Ret	G	991	Darryl O'Young	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	10	Collision Damage
Ret	P	11	Lucas di Grassi	HCB-Rutronik-Racing	Audi	5	Accident
Ret	P	888	Raffaele Marciello	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-Benz	4	Collision Damage
DNS	P	99	Tom Blomqvist	Rowe Racing	BMW	—	Accident[N 2]
DNS	S	27	Markus Pommer	Aust Motorsport	Audi	—	Accident[N 2]
DNS	P	911	Laurens Vanthoor	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	—	Accident[N 2]
DNS	P	63	Felix Rosenqvist	Scuderia Corsa	Ferrari	—	Accident[N 2]
DNS	P	5	Mirko Bortolotti	FFF Racing Team by ACM	Lamborghini	—	Accident[N 2]
DNS	S	12	Fabian Plentz	HCB-Rutronik-Racing	Audi	—	Accident[N 2]
Source:[1][20]

• 2017 Macau Grand Prix
• 2017 Guia Race of Macau

• Official website (Archived)