Reigning French F3 Champion Tristan Gommendy (22) in his Dallara 3/02 Renault-Sodemo was the winner of the prestigious F3 event in Macao. "I'm absolutely delighted", he said after the race. "I'm so overwhelmed, I'm just not able to say what this victory will mean for my career. Anyway, this is a fantastic success for me and my team ASM and is definitely important for my career. But I don't know if it will be enough to lead me in F1"

Runner-up behind the French was 21 year old Finn Heikki Kovalainen (Dallara 3/02 Renault-Sodemo). "The full course yellow phases have disturbed my rhythm a little bit", Kovalainen, this year third in the British F3 Championship, said later. "After the re-start in lap eleven I just wasn't able to keep Gommendy behind me. He was directly in my slipstream when we braked in the right-hander Lisboa. So he was faster and could pass me. Until then I believed in my chance to win the race, as there were only four more laps to go."

Japanese F3 Champion Takashi Kogure (Dallara 3/02 Mugen-Honda) came third. A big achievement, as he had started the race only from eleventh position in the grid.

For drivers of the International German F3 Championship instead the prestigious event wasn't a good weekend. Kousuke Matsuura, runner-up in the German Championship, was strong in qualifying (pole after session one and third after session two) and finished the first race on Sunday morning in sixth position, but had to retire in the main race after a close encounter with his countryman Yuje Ide, who pushed whim nearly into the barriers. After he had to drive through the dirt, Matsuura slightly touched the barriers in the 'Lisboa', spun shortly later and at the end of the lap his race was over after contact with the harbour wall. "I don't even know if I have touched the barriers at Lisboa", he said. "But from this moment my car felt rather strange. It is a real pity as my car was great before and I wasn't racing for third place but to win."

So it was Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi (Team Carlin Kolles, eighth place) who was the most successful representative of Germany's F3 Championship in the Macao grid this year. "It was a great race and big fun", he said later. "This is a crazy circuit you can't compare with any other track. And I might have achieved an even better result hadn't I had this accident in the first practice session."

Dutch Robert Dornboos (Team Ghinzani) came tenth at his Macao debut but was convinced that he might have done by far better. "My car was so good, I might have even made it on the rostrum. After my great start I was close to Gommendy, when Matsuura touched me slightly. Off I went into the emergency exit of Lisboa - and returned on the track far behind. But I'll be back next year as I like the track and want to achieve my deserved rostrum result."

Wile there were further competitors from the German F3 Championship (Portuguese Cesar Campanico, the Swiss Racing Team), no German driver was in the Grid of this year's Macao F3 GP. So we will have to wait at least one further year before a German driver might be the successor of Ralf Schumacher, who was in 1995 the last German winner of this event so far, Sascha Maassen (1994) and Jörg Müller (1993).

2003 will be the 50th anniversary of the Macao Grand prix and the organisers are planning to invite all former winners. Further it is planned to organise a race with historic racing cars one week before the Grand Prix.

Official Press Release, German-Formula-3-Association
www.formula3.info / formula-3.net -da/ko, 20.11.02