The Guia Circuit in Macau is one of the most challenging in the world, and it was a challenge made even greater for the young talents of the 2024 FIA FR World Cup as they ventured out for the first track action of the weekend in wet conditions for Free Practice 1.
Erring on the side of caution as the drivers made their way around 6.12km snake of 24 corners around the famous city streets, the first laptime of the weekend was posted by the #1 MP Motorsport car of Oliver Goethe – a 2:55.674 – but with water being cleared from the circuit by the wet specification Pirelli tyres, it wasn’t long before times started to tumble.
After fifteen minutes of running, the SJM Theodore Prema trio of Freddie Slater, Alexander Dunne and Dino Beganovic topped the timesheet, but with drivers starting to push, it would be Beganovic bringing out a red flag, as a recovery vehicle needed to be deployed onto the circuit to retrieve his stricken car. At the same moment, the number 19 TOM’S car of Rikuto Kobayashi found the barriers at the unforgiving Lisboa corner, bringing an end to his session as well.
There were just over ten minutes under red flag to complete the recovery, and with only this session to familiarise themselves before the first qualifying session later in the day, more drivers began to stray just over the limit.
Shortly after the session resumed, Alexander Abkhazava (Sainteloc Racing) and Mari Boya (KCMG IXO by Pinnacle) both managed to narrowly avoid disaster and ran down the escape road at Lisboa, but there was no such luck for James Wharton who struck the wall further around the lap and damaged the front end of his ART GP machine. He tried to limp back to the pit lane, but found the tight and narrow Melco hairpin too tight for his broken front suspension to manage.
With Wharton stranded, there was more late drama as the #3 TGM Grand Prix car of Sota Ogawa also crashed, bringing out the red flags and effectively ending the session with two and a half minutes to go.
This meant that the first driver to set a time for this weekend was also the one who finished the session on top, as Goethe was quickest ahead of Slater and Dunne, with Noel Leon and Tuukka Taponen rounding out the top five for KCMG IXO by Pinnacle and R-ace GP respectively.