Edoardo Mortara has earned himself pole position for the 55th Macau Grand Prix after fighting his way back to victory in a destructive qualifying race.

The Italian avoided a carnage-filled opening lap to catch and pass early leader Kaisuke Kunimoto before romping away to a comfortable victory

Giving Mortara a good chance of returning Volkswagen back to the top of the Macau podium for the first time since a certain Michael Schumacher back in 1990, the Signature-Plus driver slotted into second place at the start behind the Kunimoto, but ahead of pole sitter Carlo Van Dam, who bogged down.

The pole sitting Dutchman's bad luck was just starting though as he found himself on the receiving end in one of several first lap clashes that eliminated several fancied runners.

Kicking off when Roberto Merhi stalled on the grid, a collision between James Jakes and Brendon Hartley delayed several drivers at the first corner, including Max Chilton who went on to out-brake himself heading to Lisboa and crash out.

They weren't the only victims though with Jules Bianchi tangling with the Hitech Racing cars, Cheng Cong Fu and Atte Mustonen, while Renger van der Zande was also eliminated after being collected by an ailing Van Dam.

With the safety car out to clear the wreckage, it was Kunimoto that shook out in the lead of the race, the Tom's Toyota driver resisting the pressure from Mortara to lead his first ever Macau race.

Roberto Streit moved up to third position, ahead of the British pair Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird, Turvey getting ahead of his countryman when Bird made a failed attempt at passing Streit.

British F3 Champion Jaime Alguersuari was up to sixth position, ahead of the fast starting Mika Maki, who had avoided the chaos to move from 14th to seventh. Stefano Coletti, Marcus Ericsson and Kazuya Oshima rounded out the provisional top ten.