FIA European F3 champion Lando Norris (Carlin Dallara VW) has laid down two sensational successive laps to take provisional pole position in the first qualifying session for the FIA F3 World Cup at Macau.
His pole of 2m11.570s was the only time under the 2m12s barrier.
It was within 0.035s of the 2016 first session qualifying record of Felix Da Costa.
Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara Mercedes) was second on 2m12.482s from Maximillian Gunther (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara Mercedes), 2m12.619s.
Pursuit of Norris was halted by a fourth red flag when his Carlin teammate Johan Daruvala spun and was stranded on track.
The spectacular session in which the pole lead changed on no less than eleven occasions and times tumbled by more than five seconds was halted for almost 45 minutes when Sergio Sette Camara (Motopark with VEB Dallara VW) crashed heavily at Fishermen’s Bend.
Sette Camara had been fastest in the earlier first free practice session.
Before Sette Camara’s crash fastest times had been claimed by Yuhi Sekiguchi, Norris, Sette Camara, Joel Eriksson, Daniel Ticktum, Piquet, Ferdinand Habsurg and Maximillian Gunther.
Red flags were brought out when first Ryuji Kumita (B-Max Racing Team Dallara VW) and then Alex Palou (Tthree Bond Racing /Dorago Corse Dallara Tomei) crashed.
The restart after Palou’s crash resulted in a flurry of fastest times and the provisional pole tumbled into the high 2m13s bracket.
On the restart of the lengthy delay, Habsurg brought out waved yellow flags when he went straight ahead into a run off area at Moorish Hill but he was able to recover, preventing another red flag period.
Norris then took control.
His first flying lap resulted in a time of 2m12.125s which would have been fast enough to claim pole at the end of the session.
But he kept going and on his second flying lap in succession he stopped the clock a full 0.912secs ahead of Piquet.
Eighteen year old French driver Sacha Fenestraz (Carlin Dallara VW) was the fastest Macau Rookie, eighth fastest on 2min13.818sec , handing the Carlin team a double with Norris’s pole.
Drivers in the FIA F3 World Cup have another practice session and another qualifying opportunity on Day Two of the Macau GP.