Antonio Fuoco dominated the FIA GT World Cup race in Macau today, blasting away the disappointment of being nerfed out of leading position here last year.
16 laps around the Macau Guia Circuit is always a challenge in a GT3 car, but the #50 AF Corse Ferrari driver made it look easy. He led from the pole as things behind him got spicy.
Raffaele Marciello was the man on the move, going to the inside in his #53 ROWE Racing BMW with Alessio Picariello spinning in the barrier at T1 after clipping the left rear of Marciello as he got past.
The BMW’s move also saw him up the inside of front row starter Yifei Ye, Marciello up to second as Yifei Ye was forced to breathe off the throttle through Mandarin with the BMW still up the inside, Ye’s #83 Harmony Racing Ferrari swallowed up and briefly down to 7th.
The damage, though, would be restricted as Güven, up to fifth, went wide into Lisboa, tagged the wall, and was immediately collected by Luca Engstler and then Dorian Boccolacci, all three out on the spot. Ye back up to 5th
Laurin Heinrich had made his way through it all after a great start to third.
With four cars stationary on the circuit, a Safety Car was inevitable, and it would be Lap 4 before the race went back to green with Fong having pitted the #36 Uno Racing Audi under the Safety car, having clipped one of the stricken cars, damage to the rear of the Cinamoroll-liveried R8 on Lap 1. He would rejoin without losing a lap.
Under the Safety Car, the order was Fuoco, Marciello, Heinrich, Eriksson, Ye, Deng, Vanthoor, Van der Linde, Haase, Goethe, Mortara, and Fong
The race went back to green at the start of Lap 4 with a great restart from Fuoco, allowing no run from behind from the BMW. Further back in the order, Vanthoor got alongside Deng and JUST stayed out of the wall at Lisboa, ceding the position back to the Chinese Winwhere Ferrari driver and losing out to Van der Linde in the WRT BMW. Haase would also pass the off-colour Porsche shortly afterwards.
Up top 6th meanwhile was Van der Linde, the #31 BMW taking advantage of a moment for Deng at Mandarin.
At the back of the field, a frustrated Mortara barged through to 10th on Goethe through Lisboa, but then an apparent failure pitched the #63 into the wall on the outside of T19 on Lap 11 – Mortara was out.
Fuoco, though, was untroubled in the lead of the race, 4 seconds clear of the battles behind to secure his and Ferrari’s first win around the streets of Macau, another blue riband event added to a fabulous 2025 for the Italian marque!
Antonio Fuoco: “It is really special to win here in Macau, particularly after what happened last year.
“We came back with a clear objective, and I think we did an excellent job throughout the whole weekend. Today, we managed every phase of the race with clarity and determination and I am happy to share this success with the team.
“After yesterday’s good start, we tried to repeat that today, although I was concerned when I saw Marciello behind me. At the restart after the Safety Car, I almost lost the car at Mandarin just to create the margin needed not to be attacked at Lisboa, but everything went well and I am very happy.”
Marciello finished a fine second place with Heinrich third, but under investigation for his part in an early race incident as its fourth place finisher, Joel Eriksson.
Update
Joel Eriksson has been dealt a 10 second post-race penalty for the contact to the rear of Laurin Heinrich, which triggered the three car Lisboa incident on Lap 1 – that looks set to drop the Audi driver to fifth and elevate Yifei Ye and his Harmony Racing Ferrari to fourth.
One other point to note on the Ferrari front – Yifei Ye’s fourth place is the best result by a Chinese driver in the race in the years when it has held FIA Word Cup status (2015-19 – 2023-date) with both of the cars operated by Harmony Racing finishing in the top 8, they join a short list of Chinese teams achieving a pair of top ten finishes, a notable achievement for such a young team.
Pic Copyright FIA
