Ericsson on pole in Macau

Marcus Ericsson, champion of F3 Japanese, has shown its advantage since the start of the weekend. If Edoardo Mortara (Signature) broke out during the final free practice session this Friday, Marcus Ericsson (Tom?s) took over during the second qualifying session. More efficient in using the new tires, he improved Mortara's time and won a deserved pole. However, the Swede had to enter his entrenchments to dispossess Jean-Karl Vernay (Signature).

The Frenchman, who showed himself more and more comfortable over the course of the weekend, even thought he would take pole position thanks to a great time during this second session. Despite three interruptions (the last caused by the outputs of Brendon Hartley and the Chinese Kevin Chen), Vernay was on provisional pole (2'10?081), before being dispossessed by a breath by Marcus Ericsson (2'10?042) ten minutes from the end. Valtteri Bottas was the last to improve to take third place (2'10?108), Mortara having to settle for fourth place with 2'10?234.

Seventh behind Daniel Ricciardo and Laurens Vanthoor, Jules Bianchi limited the damage but will have a lot to do tomorrow in the qualifying race, especially as the weather could turn to rain... Note the twenty-sixth place on the grid of Alexandre Imperatori ( Kolles & Heinz Union), this French-speaking Swiss-German who grew up in Haute-Savoie, former French Junior Champion of karting, and installed in China since its beginnings in car. This season, Imperatori finished 3rd in the B classification in the Japanese F3 championship.