16.11.2008 - Mäki 4th in Macao GP after strong difficulties
Traditional Formula-3 seasons' final round was raced in Chinese Macao. For Finns the race hasn't been exactly a success except season 2002 as Heikki Kovalainen finished the event on 2nd position.
This year Mika Mäki participated for 55th Macao GP as he measured his speed and skills among 30 fellow competitors.
For Mäki the race weekend started with great misfortune as on Thursday he went off the track and heavily hit the barriers. His race car was badly damaged and the doctor denied his participation into first qualifying round.
After Fridays' medical examination Mäki was given permission to race again. However he was one day behind of everyone else.
- On practice session it was purely testing and on second qualifying round I was able to race decent lap times, told Mäki who was stuck into 14th starting position.
On Saturdays sprint race drivers tackled their starting position for Sundays' main race. During the race Flying Finn suffered a puncture and dropped into 19th position in overall classifications.
- I was racing for 7th position when one of the rear tyres blew up. Before the puncture I hit few times for the track surrounding barriers and on final lap I hit again which caused tyre to come off the rim, told Mäki.
Excellent rise on overall classifications
Sundays' main race brought comfort for misfortune weekend. There were several crashes on the race - Pace car was needed for three times.
- Couple of times I was very fortunate as I tried to slide my way from the wreckage of my fellow competitors and suffered no damages. I knew this event is based purely for luck and therefore I just tried to keep my car on the track, told Mäki who finished the race on 4th position.
- With good performance on the race the saldo for this weekend was very positive. However my goal was set on Podium so still I'm a bit dissapointed. My speed was OK and I would have gained Podium finish if I could have driven more troublefree laps, Mäki continued.
- Also there weren't enough time for me to setup my race car as I went off on Thursday. For the race our engineers seek maximum speed on straight sections and therefore the setup didn't work on all corners.
Sundays' race was won by japanise Keisuke Kunimoto. Mäki had an incredible race as he started the event on 19th position and finished on 4th position. After colourful events he was only 8,4 seconds slower than winner Kunimoto.
Official results, Macao F3-race: Top-5:
1 Keisuke KUNIMOTO JPN Tom's 41:01.864
2 Edoardo MORTARA ITA Signature Plus +1.710
3 Brendon HARTLEY NZL Carlin Motorsport +4.006
4 Mika MÄKI FIN Signature Plus +8.442
5 Renger van der ZANDE NED Prema +10.276 |
