20th November 2005

Manor Motorsport’s Formula 3 sensation Lucas Tucci Di Grassi has earned a place alongside the greats of world motor racing after taking a thrilling victory in the 52nd Macau F3 Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 21-year-old Brazilian, a member of the Renault F1 Team’s Driver Development Programme, was certainly classed as one of the pre-event favourites having finished in third place in 2004. But his win didn’t come easy, Di Grassi having to fight tooth and nail for a hard-earned and highly memorable Macau success.

An exciting wheel-to-wheel battle with Robert Kubica led to Di Grassi passing the Polish star not once, but twice during the 15-lap race – the second and decisive overtaking manoeuvre coming just two laps before the finish following a Safety Car period.

Di Grassi began Sunday’s race in third position on the grid but a bold passing attempt at Lisboa on lap two paid off, the Brazilian superbly driving his Mercedes-powered Dallara round the outside of Kubica to take second place.

The event would then take an amazing twist, however, when race leader Loic Duval was given a drive-through penalty, having been adjudged to have made a false start. When the Frenchman eventually entered the pitlane to take his penalty, Di Grassi assumed first place and kept Kubica at bay for several laps.

On lap 10 though, Di Grassi was on the receiving end of an overtaking move at Lisboa when Kubica passed the Manor driver on the inside after enjoying the benefit of a great slipstreaming effort.

Then, the race took another turn as a three-car collision at Faraway resulted in the Safety Car being deployed. As the field was forced to close-up under the cautionary period, Di Grassi knew the re-start would provide him with a golden opportunity to try and re-take the race lead – and so it proved.

As the Safety Car left the circuit, Di Grassi made an electric re-start to take the lead from Kubica on the run into Mandarin and withstood the close attentions of his rival for the final two laps to take a famous victory in the world-renowned annual event.

Commenting after the race, a delighted Di Grassi said: “It was a great win. If it hadn’t been for the Safety Car then I don’t think I would have been able to respond to Robert, but I took my chance and I am obviously very happy.”

The Macau victory is not only tremendous for Di Grassi’s Formula One aspirations, it also sees the Brazilian earn a place in the annuls of motor racing history alongside a glittering list of past winners including the likes of multiple F1 World Champions Michael Schumacher and Di Grassi’s late compatriot Ayrton Senna.

Manor’s second car was piloted by British F3 star Mike Conway, the 2004 Formula Renault UK Champion ending his maiden Macau Grand Prix in 14th position. The 22-year-old showed good pace from the start of Thursday’s opening practice and continued his form through to qualifying, setting an impressive third quickest time.

The session, however, proved to be somewhat bittersweet for Conway – as soon as he had set his best time of the second qualifying session, the British ace unfortunately collided with the barriers at Police and was unable to better his fastest lap.

In Saturday’s qualification race Conway finished in fourth position, after losing third place to Manor team-mate Di Grassi at the start, and while Sunday’s Grand Prix was a difficult baptism for the Brit, he can nonetheless be pleased with his first ever appearance in the world-renowned Macau event.

“It’s been a terrific visit to Macau for us”, said Manor team boss John Booth, “I’m absolutely delighted for Lucas, it was a fantastic race and he deserves his success. To win an event with the prestige of the Macau Grand Prix is an incredible achievement and it’s something which Lucas can be proud of no matter what he achieves in his career.

“Every driver who has won this race is world-class and I’m very happy Lucas has joined such a star-studded list of former Macau winners. It was important for the team to show we’re capable of delivering a race-winning car and it’s the perfect way to end the year.”

Booth added: “Mike was impressive as soon as he went out in the car on Thursday during practice and we had very high hopes for him. He showed superb pace in qualifying and then, during Saturday’s qualification race, he drove well.

“I think he’ll be disappointed to have finished 14th in the main race but he’s learned a lot over the last few days and it will only serve as tremendous experience. I’m confident he can return to Macau next year as a true front-runner.”