New Tomei engine impresses in Macau

British team T-Sport is delighted that the new Japanese Tomei Formula 3 engine was the quickest in the field at the Macau Grand Prix.

The ThreeBond-backed powerplant made its debut in September's Masters of F3 at Zandvoort, and Indian Arjun Maini gave the engine its second race outing in Macau.

Times through sector one, which is a flat-out run of 24 seconds, proved the Tomei had an advantage over the opposition from Mercedes, Volkswagen and Toyota during second qualifying, where 27 of the 28 cars improved their laptimes.

The median average time of Maini through this sector was 23.945 seconds, with the closest being Lance Stroll's Mercedes-powered car at 24.039s.

The fastest Volkswagen was Alexander Albon's (24.071s) and the fastest Toyota Mitsunori Takaboshi's (24.269s).

Median averages minimise the skewing of data by cars picking up a slipstream or the driver backing off.

Maini said: "The engine is good. They've done a really good job with it."

And T-Sport team principal Russell Eacott added: "We've been quick in sector one all weekend and have to pay a compliment to the ThreeBond and Tomei people for producing such a quick little engine.

"You can't get much more of a power track than Macau, can you?"

Eacott is hopeful that Maini can join the team for the 2016 F3 European Championship, although he has tested recently with Prema Powerteam, Carlin and Motopark.

T-Sport could also run twice Japanese F3 runner-up Kenta Yamashita in a December test.

Toyota protege Yamashita has no room for next season in the marque's Super Formula or Super GT teams, so he may be moved to Europe for one year while he waits for a vacancy, or could return for a third season of Japanese F3.

Originally on Autosport.com