Edoardo Mortara took a dominant victory in the qualification race for the Macau Grand Prix putting him on course for an historic back-to-back win at one of Formula 3's most prestigious events.
The Signature team driver did not make the best of getaways from the grid, losing the lead to fast-starting teammate Daniel Abt on the run through Mandarin, but he was back in front by the time they got into Lisboa. While there was chaos behind the leaders, as James Calado and Alexander Sims crashed spectacularly on the exit of Mandarin, Mortara kept his head down and built up a comfortable lead. At the end of lap one he was 2.1 seconds clear of Abt and pulled another second clear the following time around.
On lap three, Laurens Vanthoor moved up to second with a dive past Abt into Lisboa. But, although the Belgian was able to chip away at Mortara's lead, the gap soon stabilised and the pair crossed the finish line 2.3 seconds apart.
While the two men at the front had fairly lonely races, the fight for third was more wide open as Abt found himself under intense pressure from Prema's Roberto Merhi over the first half of the 10-lap race. On lap eight, Merhi got past with an aggressive move around the outside into Lisboa.
Then, a lap later, Valtteri Bottas's pressure on Abt forced the German to brake later for Lisboa and when Merhi left the inside open, both Abt and Bottas dived ahead. Later that lap, Merhi slowed and dropped down the order. He eventually parked his car on the slowing down lap with a right rear puncture after being classified 22nd.
Bottas, who started on the front row, could not find the pace to challenge the leading Signature cars and finished fourth, ahead of Marco Wittmann, Renger van der Zande and Jean-Eric Vergne.