SJM Theodore PREMA Racing delivered a dominant performance at the Guia Circuit today as British racer Freddie Slater led from start to finish in a runaway win in the Qualification Race for the 72nd Macau Grand Prix. Starting from the front row after a hard-fought qualifying, Slater quickly moved to P1 with a stunning start, and he made the move stick at Mandarin. Then he sailed away, amassing a 5-second advantage in the opening laps.
The Qualification Race ran unusually smoothly with no safety-car situations, but Slater managed his pace in the second half of the 10-lap run to claim pole position for the 72nd Macau Grand Prix - FIA FR World Cup, scheduled for tomorrow at 15:30 local time.
Emirati Rashid Al Dhaheri posted a top-10 finish as he stayed clean all day and secured a positive starting position for the main race. After a tough start, he managed to solidify his pace with no mistakes on his part. He will take off from the 5th row in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
Charles Leong faced a challenging race after being involved in a contact he had no chance to avoid. Despite picking up damage, his pace showed clear improvements as he got more and more experience with the Formula Regional car. He will face a thorough challenge in the Grand Prix, but with the progress made and unpredictability, a strong result is not out of question.
TEDDY YIP JR. - TEAM PRESIDENT
“That was a sensational drive from Freddie. He didn’t put a foot wrong. After a stressful start, he really began running away with it and, being so far away in the lead, we all breathed a sigh of relief that he came home with that win. I feel quite bad for Charles, who got planted but had a fantastic recovery drive. Rashid didn’t put a foot wrong himself, so I feel we are in a great place for tomorrow.”
FREDDIE SLATER - DRIVER CAR #11
“Overnight and this morning, all I wanted was a great start, that’s what I was visualizing, and I tried to have that feeling. In the end, we managed to deliver and get a good start. That obviously was the critical part of the race. After that, it was all about getting in the rhythm, which is very difficult to do around here. It was also quite hot, and there were no safety cars. It was a completely different Macau race than everybody’s used to. It was a mega race, but we still have work to do, we got more pace to extract, and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow afternoon.”
RASHID AL DAHERI - DRIVER CAR #12
“It was a tricky race. The start wasn’t the best, and we lost a few positions, but the overall pace wasn’t too bad. There are definitely some improvements that we can make for tomorrow, and some things we can figure out. In Macau, you never know. It’s a street circuit, and being the main race tomorrow, we’ll try to give it a shot and go all in.”
CHARLES LEONG - DRIVER CAR #31
“Not the day I was expecting, but I showed I had quite a bit of pace, and at the end it was getting better and better as I kept getting used to the car. We need to keep the preparation heading into tomorrow.”