The Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team made a strong start to their 2014 Macau GP campaign today, with front running pace in first practice followed by a provisional pole position for Tom Blomqvist, closely followed by team mate Antonio Giovinazzi in P2. Sean Gelael spent most of today’s practice and qualifying in the top ten, but dropped to 12th place due to a flurry of last minute improvements.
The 61st Macau Grand Prix runners had their first session on track this morning, with free practice giving them chance to get to grips with the challenging Guia Circuit. Blomqvist was on the pace from the outset, trading places at the top of the timing screens with eventual session leader Lucas Auer. It was team mate Giovinazzi who ended up closest to Auer at the flag though, setting the second fastest time, with Blomqvist third and Gelael a competitive tenth.
After time to analyse data and any set up changes to their cars, it was soon time for the Jagonya Ayam drivers to get back into their Carlin prepared Dallaras. Once again, all three men were happily in the top ten, Giovinazzi the highest team runner in the early stages in fifth.
Blomqvist was just winding up the pace though and went second quickest, only to go faster still next time round and snatch provisional pole 18 minutes into the session. Giovinazzi meanwhile was fourth at the half way point while Gelael was 11th. A couple of yellow flags briefly halted any progress, but in a relatively calm session, Blomqvist was able to further improve on his provisional pole time, ahead of Giovinazzi who was now P2 and closing the gap to the leader while Gelael had improved again to ninth.
As the chequered flag came out, Blomqvist had done enough to seal provisional pole position, with Giovinazzi second by 0.115 seconds and Gelael in 12th, despite not putting on new tyres in the middle of the session.
“I’m happy with the session; it can’t go much better than getting provisional pole,” reflected Blomqvist. “After practice we knew we were competitive, I just had to improve in a few areas and we made a few adjustments to the car which I think helped. I used my experience to push a little harder than in the last session, but there’s still a very long way to go. The track evolves quite a lot, so in a way we use this as another practice session. The car is quick and I’ve got the speed within myself and I’ve also been pushed along by my team mate, so we’ve got good references so I think we should be strong again tomorrow.”
Team mate Giovinazzi added, “It was a quite good session, we found from this morning that we had good pace, so I was happy with the car. In qualifying we were P1 and P2 so a fantastic job by the team; the car was perfect. I hope we can do better or at least repeat the same results from today. We didn’t use new tyres so I think that puts us in good shape.”
Reflecting on his session, Gelael said, “It was alright, the car felt good, but again I was behind Jordan and it’s hard with traffic. We were running in the top ten for most of the session, but some people ahead of us used new tyres. Hopefully it stays dry for tomorrow so we can push on with some new tyres and catch a break with the traffic. It should be possible to improve from here.”
The F3 drivers will take part in one further practice session tomorrow, followed by second qualifying which will help decide the grid positions for Saturday’s Qualification Race.
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