Carlin’s Felipe Nasr took a stunning second place in the 58th Macau Grand Prix today, in an eventful 15 lap race which was eventually won by Daniel Juncadella. Nasr fought closely with the front runners to take a well deserved second place and cross the line as the top British F3 and Volkswagen powered driver. Jazeman Jaafar steered clear of the various incidents to finish a very strong 8th place. Kevin Magnussen was taken out of contention after a big accident at the end of the race running eighth, while Carlos Huertas who had started fifth, crossed the line 13th after being hit early on in the race.

Despite some threatening clouds, conditions remained dry for the 58th Macau Grand Prix today. Nasr was in a strong position from his second placed grid slot, and by the end of the first lap had managed to get round unscathed and was third behind pole man Marco Wittmann and Valtteri Bottas.

Behind the leaders the drama had already kicked off following a stall for Roberto Merhi on the grid. Somehow all the Carlin drivers managed to avoid the accident and make it down to the first corner. Huertas was the first Carlin driver to suffer misfortune. The unlucky Colombian was hit from behind at Lisboa and was tapped into a spin. The Carlin man managed to recover, although he rejoined at the back of the field.

At the front, Nasr was still third, a position he managed to retain after the first safety car restart. Magnussen had managed to climb to 9th while Jaafar was 12th.

The safety car was required again on lap seven following another big accident, with Nasr still holding onto third, Magnussen eighth and Jaafar 12th. At the restart the top four fought wheel to wheel into Lisboa, and somehow all four cars managed not to touch. In the melee, Nasr took the inside line to retain third, while race leader Marco Wittmann was shuffled back to fifth.

With Juncadella now leading and Yuhi Sekiguchi second, Nasr was still in contention in a close third place. The reigning British F3 champion was on a charge, and passed Sekiguchi with a fantastic overtaking move for second on lap 11. The Carlin man soon began closing in on Juncadella for the lead, but another safety car on the penultimate lap brought competitive racing to a halt. That accident took out Magnussen who had been fighting with Will Buller for seventh. The young Dane was launched into the air and the catch fencing, suffering a heavy impact but was thankfully unhurt apart from a bruised leg.

With only one lap remaining the race finished under the safety car, leaving Nasr with no further opportunity to attack Juncadella, and the Brazilian crossed the line to take a well deserved second place. Jaafar had climbed to 8th place, while Huertas was 13th.

A competitive Nasr reflected, “I really wanted to win that one! Still, it is a good result. Prema and Signature had a very good car here, and maybe had a slight advantage over us at the start of the weekend. But we continued to improve and we did a good job to finish second.

“At the start the lights seemed to come on very quickly and I had a bit of wheel spin and lost momentum, but it wasn’t too bad as I was able to get back up to third. At the restarts I didn’t quite manage to get the right tow to get past and was never able to challenge for the lead. On the last restart we were four wide into Lisboa. I had to take the inside line as the whole left hand side of the circuit was taken, and it felt quite dangerous to be honest but I had to take some risks. Then I took second a few laps later at the same place, and again it felt very risky; Sekiguchi had been very aggressive, but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to finish second. I think I could have challenged Juncadella for the lead had it not been for the final safety car, but this is what you have to expect from Macau.

“It feels good to be on the podium in my final F3 race. I have had an amazing season with Carlin and I saw how badly they wanted to win in Macau and how hard the whole team worked to give us a good car. In a team like Carlin the aim is always to win, but I’m very happy to have taken second and to have finished the season like this with such good friends.”

Trevor Carlin added, “We knew we had a good car coming to Macau and to see our driver on the podium at such a prestigious event is a great reward for the work that the team have put in. Felipe drove a fantastic race and demonstrated exactly why he is British F3 champion. As usual, Macau gave us several incidents with both Carlos and Kevin unlucky not to finish the race. To be honest, our main emotion after the race was relief that Kevin was ok after a big incident. It’s a testament to the strength of the cars that he suffered no more than a bruised leg following such a dramatic accident. Overall as a team, I think we can be proud of our performance here this weekend.”

Source: Carlin Team