Mortara comes in second in the Macau rollercoaster 23.11.2022: After a three year-hiatus, Absolute Racing returned to the Circuito da Guia in Macau, entering Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute’s Edoardo Mortara and FAW Audi Racing Team’s Cheng Congfu in the Macau GT Cup for FIA GT3 cars.

After a three year-hiatus, Absolute Racing returned to the Circuito da Guia in Macau, entering Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute’s Edoardo Mortara and FAW Audi Racing Team’s Cheng Congfu in the Macau GT Cup for FIA GT3 cars.



The Macau’s Circuito da Guia is a street track with a reputation as one of the most demanding and spectacular anywhere in the world. Its combination of high-speed straights and twisting mountain section tests provides a great test of driver skill, with little margin for error provided by the barriers lining the full 6.12-kilometre lap.




Edoardo Mortara turned the tables on a rollercoaster weekend to snatch second place in the Macau GT Cup in his Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute R8 LMS GT3. Fighting back from a glitch at the start of the Qualification Race to secure a P4 grid position for Sunday’s main event, Mortara showed why he has earned the moniker ‘Mr. Macau’ by powering through to take second in the eight-lap race.



The drama began early when, having taken pole for Saturday’s Qualification Race, a warm-up lap start infringement saw Edoardo Mortara begin the race from the back of the grid. Cheng Congfu was caught up in a multi-car incident early on which saw the race red-flagged and extensive damage to his Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II. At the restart, however, Mortara was nothing short of dynamite, powering through the field to secure a second row start for the main race on Sunday.



As the lights went out for the start of Macau GT Cup, Mortara was quickly on the attack to his battling rivals ahead.Lap two saw Mortara promoted to second on the road as an opponent had a technical failure at the Melco Hairpin. Moments later, the safety car was called out after a car stopped at the inaccessible back section of the track. Moments later, the safety car was called out after a car stopped at the inaccessible back section of the track.



It proved to be a lengthy safety car intervention with the race only going green again with two laps remaining. Mortara fought to take the fight to the race leader in the dash to the flag, but ultimately ran out of laps.







TEAM QUOTES:



Alexander Blackie (Manager of Audi Sport customer racing Asia): “It was truly a rollercoaster weekend at the Macau Grand Prix this year. After starting the Qualification Race dead-last after a penalty, Edo Mortara and the team showed incredible fight to claw their way back to second overall in the main race. To see the crowd reaction for Mr. Macau’s homecoming has been very special indeed.”




Ingo Matter (Team Director of Absolute Racing): "Of course we would like to have won it for the fourth time, but a second-place finish is not bad at all. That's a positive result for us after the massive setback of Saturday’s race one. We were on the pace and took the pole-position. Franky improved his pace massively during the week, and Edo made the pole-position and the fastest lap since 2019 against an opposition that drives GT3 cars every week.”




Martin Young (Team Manager of Absolute Racing): “It was for certain a up and down weekend. Both drivers Edo and Franky showed strong speed and improvement over the weekend, to qualify pole was very rewarding for the all team.


Saturday was sure a down day for the team as a mistake before the race and then the huge crash at the start put us out of contention for the win. Edo showed great skill to come from last to fourth. Unfortunately Franky weekend was over due to the amount of damage caused. Sunday was a race of what could have been.



Finishing second was a good result for Edo, but I do feel with the pace we had over the weekend and if the race was the full length we would have been able to retake P1, but this is Macau. Let's look forward to the next one, and thank you to Audi Sport and Audi Sport customer racing Asia for all of your help throughout the event, and congratulations to the team on another strong performance.”



Edoardo Mortara (Driver of Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute): “Overall it was a good weekend. After Saturday's mistake, we clearly had a challenging weekend ahead of us.

Nevertheless, we still managed to comeback from last to P2, which I consider to be a nice achievement on a track like Macau where there are only few places to overtake. We showed a great performance during the entire weekend.


We have been the most competitive and fastest, and that says a lot, especially considering that I haven’t drive a GT3 for five or six years. The first practice sessions proved to be a little bit difficult, but after I found a good feeling and we were pretty quick.



It was also nice to comeback to Macau with Audi Sport customer racing Asia and Absolute Racing. It was eleven years since we competed in Macau together for the first time. In my opinion we still have the unfinished business in Macau and I hope to comeback with the same team to finish the job.”




Cheng Congfu (Driver of FAW Audi Racing Team): "It's a pity that this weekend ended like this. I haven't raced in Guia Circuit for six years, and I was a bit rusty in some parts of the track. It took me some time to adapt to the track in Thursday's practice session, mainly in the hill section.



The qualifying session on Friday went very smoothly, and I accumulated a lot of things, laying a good foundation for the race. It is a pity that I was affected by the accident and bid farewell to this weekend’s race. Anyway, I am more familiar with this track now and I’ve laid the groundwork for coming back here next year.”






RACE RESULTS



RACE ONE


RACE TWO
 



 

Absolute Racing - photos