Ugochukwu and R-ace GP win Macau Grand Prix

It wasn't a Frenchman who won this Sunday in Macau, but several of them! The French team R-ace GP, led by Thibaut de Merindol, won the first French World Cup held in the streets of Macau this weekend. Author of the pole position in qualifying on Friday, and of a victory in the qualifying race the day before, the American Ugo Ugochukwu won the Macau Grand Prix and thus succeeds Luke Browning, winner last year.

The protégé of McLaren delivered an ultra-solid race. Never put in difficulty by his closest pursuer Oliver Goethe (2nd), he constantly managed to take cover at each restart after the safety car and above all avoided the traps that some of his little comrades fell into throughout the weekend. He was accompanied on the podium by Oliver Goethe and Noël Léon, who also managed to maintain their positions on the podium. Freddie Slater, 4th for a long time, wanted so much to go for the podium that he gave it his all on the penultimate lap in Lisboa, finishing his race in the tire wall.

Deligny at the foot of the podium

This maneuver allowed Frenchman Enzo Deligny to finish in a promising 4th place, just off the podium, after a very serious weekend led with great mastery. His compatriots did not disgrace themselves either. Evan Giltaire, forced to retire in the first lap, was in the top 10, while Théophile Naël finished 14th.

As a reminder, this is the first time that the Macau Grand Prix has given pride of place to single-seaters from F3 Regional. The decision was indeed taken last winter by the FIA ​​to move the cars lined up on the Guia circuit down one level in the pyramid, mainly for safety reasons, given the power (around 350 hp) of the FIA ​​F3s that were racing there until then. Unfortunately, this did not prevent crashes and incidents of all kinds.

Despite a start under safety car regime, for safety reasons probably due to all the crashes that had occurred since the beginning of the weekend, the race was soon brought to a standstill (red flag) for several minutes following a full-blown pile-up at the Lisboa bend. Arriving three abreast, James Wharton tried to pass on the outside but was irremediably greeted by the wall of tires.

Evan Giltaire, who was following closely behind him, could not avoid the collision with his left rear wheel. Just like four other drivers (Le, Daryanani, Bowling, Kobayashi and Rodrigues) who were unable to avoid the Australian and crashed into him. Another safety car came out 11 laps from the end after an incident involving Liu Ruiqi, then another four laps from the end, before also ending under safety car regime… as a symbol…

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