Edoardo Mortara made history in Macau on Sunday, becoming the first driver to win the Formula 3 Grand Prix for a second consecutive time. The Signature Racing driver fought back from third place at one point in the incident-filled race to take a win that rounds off his title-winning F3 Euro Series campaign in perfect style.
Mortara had led away cleanly from pole position at the start and defended well into Lisboa corner, holding off Daniel Abt, who had jumped ahead of front-row starter Laurens Vanthoor. But the safety car was called out almost immediately, following a collision on the grid that put Carlos Munoz and Rio Haryanto out – and left Alexander Sims interlocked with the rear of Raikkonen Robertson teammate Michael Ho.
The race restarted on lap three and, although Mortara tried to build up a cushion, he was swiftly swallowed up by Abt and Vanthoor, who both slip-streamed past him on the run into Lisboa. Just a few corners later, however, leader Abt got it badly wrong at the Solitude Esses, swiping the wall on the right before bouncing into the barriers on the left-hand side. Vanthoor avoided getting caught up in the crash and took the lead.
With Abt's car stranded on the track another safety car was called, and at the restart on lap seven Mortara seized the opportunity to draft himself past Vanthoor on the run down to Lisboa. After that, Mortara pulled clear at the front – opening a comfortable two-second gap to Vanthoor, who found himself under pressure in the closing stages from Bottas.
Although Bottas had shown he had the pace to threaten Vanthoor, after moving up to third place on lap eight, he did not quite have the straight-line speed to overhaul his rival, so finished third. Fourth place went to Marco Wittmann, who finished ahead of Renger van der Zande, Antonio Felix da Costa, and Jean-Eric Vergne, while Roberto Merhi charged back through the pack after his first race puncture to finish eighth.