F3: Giovinazzi leads first Macau practice

Antonio Giovinazzi emerged fastest from the first free practice session for the 2015 Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix. The Italian's Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen headed last year's Macau winner and new F3 European champion Felix Rosenqvist by seven tenths of a second in a session that was disrupted by two red flags. As a consequence, nobody really got into the rhythm around the challenging Guia circuit and times were slow.

After the second stoppage, there was only time for half the runners to get past the startline for a flying lap before the checkered flag, and this was when the top 12 times were set.

"The car was feeling really good already from the first lap," said Giovinazzi. "I am really happy but we can improve the car again and the laptimes will improve a lot.

"There was a lot of traffic, especially as for a lot of drivers it is their first time here, so they don't want to make mistakes."

Rosenqvist was second to Giovinazzi before the second red flag and remained in that position after the final lap, putting his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes ahead of the Motopark car of Markus Pommer.

A trio of Japanese drivers rounded out the top six, with Japanese championship runner-up Kenta Yamashita (TOM'S) in fourth ahead of Yuhi Sekiguchi (B-Max) and Yu Kanamaru (Carlin).

Yamashita's teammate, Japanese champion Nick Cassidy, was seventh from leading rookie Lance Stroll, with Mitsunori Takaboshi and Alexander Albon rounding out the top 10.

Charles Leclerc was third before the final red flag, but was one of those not to get a flying lap in before the end and dropped to 13th.

The first red flag was caused when Jake Dennis suffered a puncture and smacked into the wall.

"I knew I had a puncture, hit the brake and it didn't stop at all," he said.

The second was a result of Callum Ilott crashing at Paiol. "I was getting a bit frustrated with traffic – it was no one's fault but mine," he explained.

Other crashers were Double R Racing duo Alexander Sims and Matt Solomon, who both went off at Lisboa, while Daniel Juncadella lost a lot of time with gearbox problems.

Originally on Autosport.com