McLaren junior Norris take provisional pole for Macau GP - MotorSportsTalk

McLaren Formula 1 youngster Lando Norris has secured provisional pole position for the 64th running of the Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 race, finishing almost one second clear of the field in a truncated opening stage of qualifying on Thursday.

Norris, 18, entered the famous Macau race for a second time off the back of a successful title campaign in the FIA European Formula 3 championship, as well as enjoying a strong maiden F1 test with McLaren back in July.

Norris flew from Brazil to Macau earlier than planned following the cancellation of the Pirelli test at Interlagos he’d been due to feature in over safety fears, arriving in time to take part in practice.

The Briton put the hammer down in Q1 to finish nine-tenths of a second clear of Pedro Piquet at the top of the timesheets, squeezing in a late lap before a fourth red flag forced the session to come to an early end.

Norris’ fastest time of 2:11.570 was just 0.035 seconds off Antonio Felix da Costa’s qualifying record set last year, and gave him an advantage of 0.912 seconds over Piquet in second place.

Norris’ 2017 F3 title rival Maximilian Günther finished the session third-fastest for Prema Powerteam ahead of Red Bull youngster Dan Ticktum, while Joel Eriksson took P5.

Super Formula racer Yuhi Sekiguchi finished Q1 sixth-fastest, edging out Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott in P7.

Sacha Fenestraz slotted into eighth at the checkered flag, with Sergio Sette Camara and Guanyu Zhou rounding out the top 10.

The second and final stage of qualifying takes place in Macau on Friday.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”