Macau Magic: da Costa conquers the streets again

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Sunday 20th November 2016 is not a day António Félix da Costa will forget in a hurry. Four years after his last visit to Macau, where he won the legendary season-ending Formula 3 race back in 2012, he doubled up in 2016 to become a two-time winner around the streets of the former Portuguese colony, taking home the FIA F3 World Cup.

Driving for Carlin, the same team he won with in 2012, Portugal’s da Costa – competing in Formula E with MS Amlin Andretti this season after two campaigns with Aguri – returned to Macau to take part in a race that has launched many careers and is always full of drama and intrigue.

After qualifying in P3 behind the British pair of George Russell and Callum Ilott, a good start to the Qualification race – which sets the grid for the main race – saw da Costa move up into 2nd behind Ilott. After a safety car period, da Costa was able to slipstream past Ilott and held on for the win after that, despite pressure from the British youngster behind.

The start of the main race was breathtaking, with da Costa, Ilott and Sergio Sette Camara – da Costa’s team-mate – going three-wide before Camara took the lead ahead of the Portuguese driver. After another safety car period, da Costa repeated his move from the day before, slipstreaming past Camara and once again holding on to take the win – and the FIA F3 World Cup.

But da Costa was not the only Formula E driver who competed in Macau last weekend – nor was he the only one to finish on the podium. Mahindra Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist, winner of this race in both 2014 and 2015, was looking for a hat-trick of titles in 2016. That looked difficult after only qualifying in P8, and in the Qualification race he could only make up two places to finish 6th. However the Swede showed just the kind of speed and fighting spirit in Sunday’s main race that he showed in the Marrakesh ePrix the weekend before – he put in a blistering drive to make up four places, finishing as runner-up. It was his second podium in as many weekends across two continents.

Five Formula E drivers past and present have won the F3 race in Macau, with seven titles in total. As well as da Costa and Rosenqvist with two titles each, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport‘s Lucas di Grassi won the event in 2005 (and Dragon Racing‘s Loïc Duval won the Qualification race that year but could only finish 6th in the main race) while former Formula E racers Mike Conway and Takuma Sato also won the race in 2006 and 2001 respectively.

And it’s not just Formula 3 cars that contest a World Cup around the streets of Macau. The FIA GT World Cup was also contested last weekend, with some of the best GT drivers in the world present including Venturi‘s Maro Engel. The German driver, competing for Mercedes-AMG Driving Academy in a Mercedes AMG GT3, wore the #1 on his car with pride as he looked to defend the title he won in 2015. He started in P4 for the Qualification race – like in the F3 category, this set the grid for the final race – and finished in the same position after 12 laps of tough racing.

In Sunday’s final race, Engel was able to dispatch Earl Bamber and finish P3, meaning every Formula E driver competing on the streets of Macau was able to stand on the podium. The race was cut short when race leader Laurens Vanthoor crashed, bringing out red flags, but luckily the Belgian driver was OK and was able to take the race win on countback.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Images of da Costa and Rosenqvist courtesy of Rajan Jangda

Image of Engel courtesy of FIA Formula E

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]