Japan’s Keisuke Kunimoto took a surprise victory in the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix on Sunday as his TOM’S team took their second consecutive win in the blue-riband event.

“I cannot believe this result, but my TOM’S team is the best in the world and that is why I could get on top of the podium," Kunimoto stated.

Kunimoto, making his first appearance in Macau, got away better than pole position man Edoardo Mortara from second spot on the grid – and managed to fight off his rival all the way down to Lisboa Bend.

Behind the leading duo there was chaos as Roberto Streit collided with Sam Bird as he tried to defend the position. Streit speared into the barriers on the right hand side of the track before spinning across the circuit.

The Safety Car was called out to allow officials to retrieve the two stricken cars, and at the restart on lap three Kunimoto was able to maintain his advantage – as Mortara briefly hit trouble.

The Italian locked up under braking for Lisboa on lap four, and the incident allowed Daniel Campos-Hull and Jaime Alguersuari past him. Mortara was able to recover third from Campos-Hull on lap six, and then moved up to second when Alguersuari was handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

Mortara then began closing down on Kunimoto’s lead before another Safety Car period on lap eight, after Robert Merhi crashed heavily at R Bend.

At the restart on lap ten, Kunimoto managed to edge clear – and it all went wrong for Mortara when he hit the wall in the hill section and slightly damaged his car.

Although able to continue and trim the gap to Kunimoto, he could not get close enough to launch a challenge for the lead and eventually finished 1.7 seconds behind. Brendon Hartley finished third, having started 20th - benefiting from a number of incidents in the race that moved him up the field.

Mika Maki was fourth ahead of Renger van der Zande, Laurens Vanthoor and Oliver Turvey. Jaime Alguersuari recovered to tenth after a drive through penalty dropped him from third to the back of the field.

E.A. © CAPSIS International