2017 FIA GT World Cup
The 2017 FIA GT World Cup was a non-championship Grand Touring motor race held in the autonomous territory of Macau on the streets of the city on 19 November. It was the third edition of the event and the tenth time overall that GT3-specification cars had competed in Macau. The event promoter, the Automobile General Association Macau-China, appointed the motorsports organiser Stéphane Ratel Organisation to form a grid. The race itself was made up of two races: a 11-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the 18-lap main race.
The main race was won by Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy driver Edoardo Mortara in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 from pole position, having won the Qualification Race the previous afternoon. Mortara held the lead at the rolling start and led every lap of the main race to claim his sixth victory in Macau. Second place went to the highest-placed rookie Robin Frijns in an Audi R8 LMS fielded by Audi Sport Team WRT. The podium was completed by Maro Engel of Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing.
Background and entry list
The 2017 FIA GT World Cup was the third edition of the event and the tenth time overall that GT3 cars had competed in Macau. It took place at the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 19 November 2017 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. After the 2016 iteration in which an accident involving Laurens Vanthoor curtailed the race and constraints to its timetable meant all scheduled laps could not be completed, the FIA moved the first race of the 2017 Guia Race of Macau from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon to allow for the increased possibility that the race would run for all its 18 scheduled laps. Manufacturer-supported teams fielding professional drivers rated platinum or gold were allowed to compete as part of the race organiser's Stéphane Ratel Organisation objective to have a World Cup event for professionals and one for amateurs. Safety and trackside recovery procedures were enhanced. The Guia Circuit was modified after the 2016 race: several kerbs at turns one and two were modified for safety purposes and TecPro energy absorption barriers were installed.In order to compete in the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile -regulated championship race based on GT3 regulations in the previous two seasons or have significant experience driving Grand Touring cars. The event was restricted to drivers who held a platinum or a gold racing license with silver ranked drivers eligible on a case by case basis at the discretion of the FIA GT World Cup Committee. Bronze rated competitors were not allowed to compete.
The entry list was released on 24 October 2017. 20 drivers from 13 countries representing seven manufacturers competed. It had the event's defending winner Laurens Vanthoor, 2016–17 Formula E series winner Lucas di Grassi, 2016 FIA World Endurance co-champion Romain Dumas, Blancpain GT Series champion Mirko Bortolotti, two-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Marco Wittmann, Supercars Championship racer and 2014 Bathurst 1000 co-winner Chaz Mostert.
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions lasting half an hour were held before the race on Sunday: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. In the first practice session, Maro Engel's 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing car was fastest with a time of 2 minutes, 18.948 seconds on his final lap. Raffaele Marciello in the sister No. 888 car was second, Edoardo Mortara's No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy third, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 of Felix Rosenqvist fourth and Robin Frijns in the No. 1 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS fifth. Daniel Juncadella, Markus Pommer, Augusto Farfus, Nico Müller and Darryl O'Young filled positions six through ten. Di Grassi lost control of the rear of his car with ten minutes to go and glanced a barrier alongside the circuit in the track's mountain section but continued with minor damage.Frijns paced the second practice session with a 2 minutes, 18.507 seconds lap, ahead of Audi brandmate Pommer in second. Farfus, Juncadella, Müller, Engel, Marciello, di Grassi, Bortolotti and Vanthoor completed the top ten drivers. At more than, Pommer spun through 360 degrees on the kerb at the inside of Mandarin Bend corner. He narrowly avoided striking the wall and no interruption to proceedings was needed. Fabian Plentz caused the first stoppage after a spin but recovered to the pit lane. A second red flag came out when Hiroki Yoshimoto crashed his Porsche 911 at the Solitude Esses turn and was in a hazardous position.
Friday afternoon's qualifying session lasted for half an hour. The session was used to determine the starting order for the qualification race by using the competitor's fastest lap times. In fading light, Mercedes-AMG took the first four places as Mortara led for the majority of qualifying to take his second consecutive pole position in Macau with a lap of 2 minutes, 17.565 seconds that he set in its final minutes. He was joined on the grid's front row by his teammate Juncadella and the two Team GruppeM Racing cars of Engel and Marciello were third and fourth. Müller was the highest-placed Audi driver in fifth and was eight-thousands of a second adrift of Marciello. Farfus in the No. 18 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 qualified sixth ahead of his brandmate Tom Blomqvist's No. 99 Rowe Racing car in seventh. Pommer was the highest-placed silver ranked driver in eighth. Vanthoor's No. 911 Craft-Bamboo Racing car and di Grassi in HCB-Rutronik Racing's No. 11 vehicle rounded out the top ten qualifiers.
Rosenqvist was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten because his best lap time of 2 minutes and 18.917 seconds was 1.352 seconds off the pace of Mortara due to a car set-up error. Twelfth was the No. 84 Honda NSX of Renger van der Zande and Wittmann's No. 91 FIST Team AAI entry took thirteenth. The sole Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bortolotti, the Porsches of Dumas and O'Young, the Audis of Frijns and Plentz and Mostert's BMW were the last drivers to set a qualifying lap. Yoshimoto did not record a lap time because his team could not repair his car following his crash in the second practice session. Although the session passed without the need for a red flag, two drivers had incidents. Frijns hit a wall at Fisherman's Bend corner due to an anti-lock braking system fault but he drove slowly back to the pit lane for repairs. At the end of the session, Vanthoor lost control of his car and crashed into the inside barrier at Fisherman's Bend turn. After qualifying, the FIA altered the balance of performance in an attempt to create parity. The weight of the Mercedes-AMGs were increased from to and the Honda NSX had its weight increased from to.
Qualifying classification
Qualifying race
The qualifying race to set the grid order for the main race started under overcast but dry weather at 12:25 Macau Standard Time on 18 November. At the rolling start, Mortara lost the lead to his Mercedes-AMG brandmate Engel on the approach to Lisboa corner. One of Mortara's other brandmates Juncadella tried to do the same on the outside but he knocked his steering arm out of alignment from contact with an outside barrier at Reservoir Bend turn alongside the track. As the field went into the right-hand Police Bend corner, considered one of the track's narrowest sections and a blind turn, Juncadella's handling put him wide into an barrier at the exit of the turn. Marciello narrowly avoided colliding with Juncadella but Vanthoor was unsighted and he understeered into the right-rear corner of Juncadella's stalled car. This created a road block that nobody in the tightly-packed field could avoid, as drivers who were behind Juncadella at the time had a domino effect accident, which piled them into each other. Di Grassi was close by Pommer and his car was suspended on Wittmann's bonnet.No driver was seriously injured in the crash but the race was immediately suspended for more than an hour for circuit clearing by track marshals and cranes to the right-hand side of the circuit were used to extricate cars. Four of the 20 entrants were not involved in the accident, while four more that were damaged were deemed repairable and returned to the track. The race restarted behind the safety car at 13:20 local time with 25 minutes left to run. Engel did not lead the restart because his car failed to start in the pit lane due to a battery failure and his brandmate Mortara led. Once racing resumed on lap three, Mortara immediately began establishing a small lead over Farfus who pressured him but could not affect an overtake. Thus, Mortara crossed the start/finish line after 11 laps to win the qualification race and began the main race from the pole position. Farfus followed 1.566 seconds later in second and Marciello completed the podium in third. Off the podium, Frijns pressured Maricello but he settled for fourth. Mostert, O'Young, Yoshimoto and Engel were the last of the classified finishers.
Qualifying race classification
Main race
The race commenced on a damp track and in overcast weather at 12:10 local time on 19 November. Many teams worked overnight to repair the structural damage sustained to their cars in the qualification race accident for their drivers to partake in the main event. However, Blomqvist, Bortolotti, Pommer, Plentz, Rosenqvist and Vanthoor's cars could not be repaired by their respective teams in Macau due to the heavy amount of structural damage and were withdrawn from the race. The race director elected to commence the event behind the safety car because of the damp track created by an earlier rain shower, allowing drivers to get accustomed with the changing conditions. The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap two and drivers were allowed to overtake. Mortara made a clean getaway from the rolling start but went slightly wide at Reservoir Bend corner and hit the outside wall leaving the corner. He was untroubled however as Farfus could not get close enough to challenge the Mercedes AMG. Farfus moved to the inside lane but was rammed from behind by Marciello at Lisboa turn. Farfus consequently lost third to Marciello.Farfus slowed, hit an barrier and the car's boot cover lifted. Marciello sustained damage to his car's radiator and he drove into the pit lane at the beginning of lap four to retire with smoke billowing from its front. Engel overtook Yoshimoto and O'Young to move into sixth. In the meantime, Mortara increased his advantage to six seconds as a consequence of the contact between Farfus and Marciello. On the sixth lap, track marshals waved a black flag with an orange disc to Farfus, which instructed him to enter the pit lane and mend the loose car bodywork. The safety car was deployed on the same lap when di Grassi hit the barrier through the Solitude Esses at high speed. He stopped his car in the mountain section soon after. Farfus made his pit stop under the safety car for the removal of his boot cover and fell to the rear of the field. Three laps were spent behind the safety car and Mortara kept his lead at the restart. Engel was promoted to fourth when Farfus made his pit stop and he overtook Mostert around the outside at Lisboa corner for third. Half a lap later, O'Young crashed on cold tyres leaving the hill to the right-hand San Francisco Bend turn and was hit by Müller who spun him into an barrier.
The safety car was deployed until the conclusion of lap eleven to allow O'Young's car to be removed from the circuit. Mortara maintained his lead at the restart with Frijns second. Engel slipstreamed Frijns to remain with him. Mostert slid wide after exiting the Solitude Esses and the error allowed the recovering Farfus to overtake him for fourth. Engel spent the next few laps close by Frijns but the latter established a rhythm and began to draw closer to Mortara. However, Mortara led every lap and crossed the start/finish line to claim his sixth victory in Macau by 0.618 seconds over the closing Frijns who could not overtake him. Engel was third, Farfus fourth with his fellow brandmates Mostert and Wittmann fifth and sixth. Dumas finished seventh, Juncadella eighth and Yoshimoto was the final classified finisher. The attrition rate was moderate with nine of the fourteen starters finishing the event and the safety car was on track for a total of six laps.