FastMotoring Motor News In Speed
Edoardo Mortara, the Audi DTM ace took his 4th straight victory at the 59th Macau Grand Prix, defending his Macau GT Cup crown with a masterful manoeuvre to stand atop the podium. Known as ‘Mr Macau’ for his successful dominance of the 6.2km Guia street circuit, Mortara competed with team Audi R8 LMS Cup in an Audi R8 LMS ultra, along with newly crowned Audi R8 LMS Cup Amateur Cup champion Jeffrey Lee.
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Edoardo Mortara has twice won the Formula 3 Macau GP and also the current lap record holder. In the first of two qualifying sessions, Mortara found himself caught in traffic and could not do better than second in Friday’s session. A day later, however, Mortara found a completely clear lap, recording the fastest time of the two sessions with a 2:20.617.
Starting from pole position, Mortara dropped a place as the cars thundered off the grid. While Lucas di Grassi in a Ferrari 458 GT3 would later be penalized for jumping the start, at the time Mortara was solely focused on finding a way past his rival. The opportunity came on Lap 4, with Mortara getting by at the notorious Lisboa Bend to grab the lead.
Mortara held the lead as he stormed relentlessly towards the flag, even after the restart which followed a Safety Car period, ultimately winning his second straight Macau GT Cup, ahead of Alexandre Imperatori in a Porsche 911 GT3 R and Danny Watts in the McLaren MP4-12C GT3.
Meanwhile Lee continued to fly the flag for Audi in the regional GT Asia Series, for which the Macau GT Cup served as its final round. Lee put in a strong performance in the second qualifying session to find himself lining up on the fifth row of the grid. While Lee did not finish as high as he had hoped, the Chinese Taipei driver finished fourth overall in the GT Asia Series points standings, while the team finished fifth.
Rene Koneberg, the Director of Audi Sport customer racing in China commented, “We are thrilled to celebrate Edoardo’s second win with Audi in the Macau GT Cup at the Macau Grand Prix and bring the curtain down on a fantastic season of Audi customer racing China. I would also like to congratulate Jeffrey on a strong Audi season this year, first with his Amateur Cup title in the Audi R8 LMS Cup and a strong result in this year’s GT Asia Series.”
The two entries in the Macau GT Cup are part of the expanding reach of the Audi China motorsport programme. Rounding out the Audi R8 LMS ultra trio was Hong Kong’s Philip Ma with Team Hong Kong Racing, who finished 13th in the race.
Photo Gallery: Audi 2012 Macau GT Cup
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