Macau Grand Prix – Qualifying 1: Slater leads Deligny and Boya

Second in Free Practice behind Taito Kato, Freddie Slater showed no signs of nerves in qualifying. Having trailed Enzo Deligny until the very end, the Briton managed a strong final lap, allowing him to gain a three-tenths advantage over the Frenchman. Stringing together purple sector times, the Briton put himself in a strong position for pole position with a best time of 2:15.708, and, more importantly, extended his lead over his rivals. As a reminder, the overall fastest times from both qualifying sessions will determine the starting grid order for Saturday's qualifying race.

Second, Enzo Deligny confirmed that the FRECA drivers competing in this 2025 season are proving to be genuinely competitive at the start of this weekend. Not far behind Freddie Slater, the Frenchman notably edged out Mari Boya, who is on the F3 grid this year and fought until the very last race for the honorary title of runner-up. He is the highest-placed Frenchman at the end of this season. Formula 3Théophile Naël is provisionally fourth on the grid, pending the second session on Friday.

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First red flags in Macau

Just hours after Laurens Vanthoor's first crash in the GT category, the first off-track excursions occurred during qualifying. Japan's Hiyu Yamakoshi was the first to clip the walls at the Guia circuit, while Britain's Reza Seewooruthun forced the session to be red-flagged with five minutes remaining. Right at the end of the session, as Enzo Deligny attempted to improve his final lap, Kiyoshi Umegaki was the last to hit the barriers, thus freezing the standings.

Caught out, Evan Giltaire thus finds himself in 16th place in this standings, and naturally aims for a better time than the one he managed to achieve (2:17.765) to position himself ahead of some of the top drivers for the qualifying race. In the top 10, many drivers familiar with European racing feature, such as Matteo De Palo – FRECA runner-up – in 5th place, or Mattia Colnaghi – Europcup-3 champion – in sixth place.

To follow the rest of the events, tune in at 6:30 (French time) this Friday for the Formula 4 qualifying session. The Q2 of Formula Regional will take place at 7:30.

Macau Grand Prix – Regional Formula
Qualification 1 ranking