After a horrible race in Singapore, Brock Kidd came to Macau looking to bounce back and did it in style with a dominant pole position. He started at the front today ahead of Aron Einarsson who had his best qualifying of the season to date and Oleksandr Zozulya. The start was lively, as Einarsson got a slightly better start but was held off at turn 1 by Kidd. The Icelander got a lovely slipstream through turn 2, however. As they approached the first braking point, the Renault driver dived to the inside and passed the polesitter with a wonderful late move. Alexander McLaughlin had the best start reaction time of everyone, which saw him fly past Kip Maxwell and Zozulya up to 3rd with ease. Further back Steven Kasami, after qualifying 8th, had a lot of wheelspin and lost 3 places immediately. Towards the rear, usual frontrunners Felipe Cesar and Sebastian Bergkvist made up 2 and 3 places respectively at the start. Kidd tried to repass Einarsson but ended up locking up at turn 3. He was able to keep it out of the barriers, but his mistake allowed McLaughlin to move up to 2nd.
As the drivers got settled into a rhythm, it was clear Cesar and Bergkvist were in a league of their own, the Brazilian in particular. Despite the cramped nature of the circuit, they made up some ground on the frontrunners. Cesar dispatched Kasami and Robert Stefansson easily before flying up to the back of teammate Ryota Yoshida, while Bergkvist overtook teammate Olen Inman at the final corner before taking Judson Sikes a lap later. Singapore race winner Will Taylor was also enjoying himself as he sliced through the battling pair of Maxwell and Stuart Harrison. The battles were brought to a halt suddenly at the halfway mark though as Jochem van Snelheid’s car stopped in the middle of the track while running 8th. The safety car was brought out and everyone was bunched up – except McLaughlin. The Mitsubishi car got a handful of oversteer as he tried to slow, and he went into the barriers at the Solitude Esses. It was a heart-breaking end to his race as he had kept up with Einarsson until his crash. The two cars were cleared surprisingly quickly, and the race restarted 3 laps later, with 10 laps left. Kidd, now right on the back of Einarsson, began to look for a way past, but the race leader defended firmly. This allowed Zozulya, Taylor and Maxwell to keep in touch, and it looked like there could be a 5-way battle for the lead. This was interrupted again though when Yoshida crashed into the back of Harrison at the Melco hairpin. Yoshida had looked towards the inside, but after a defensive move from Harrison, locked up and hit the Renault. This, along with Ivan Lesic hitting the barriers earlier in the lap, saw the safety car brought out again. Another quick clean-up by the marshals meant that the race was restarted with 4 laps left. Kidd only needed one though – determined to win his first race of the season, he drew alongside Einarsson out of turn 2 and overtook him around the outside of turn 3 with a wonderful move. Despite the field being bunched up, many struggled to overtake, with Cesar’s late pass on Maxwell being the only other overtake. As the chequered flag fell after 25 laps, Kidd could celebrate a brilliant win, ahead of Einarsson who was gutted to just miss out on 1st. Zozulya and Taylor took 3rd and 4th for Jaguar ahead of Cesar who drove a brilliant recovery race and topped it off with the fastest lap. Maxwell ended 6th while a move on Steffansson after the first safety car meant Kasami moved back up to 7th for his first points of the year. Steffansson likewise got his first points in 8th while the Porsche duo of Bergkvist and Inman rounded out the top 10, the Swede recovering well from a poor qualifying like Cesar.
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