Nonetheless, the Italian wasted no time in moving back ahead of Campos-Hull and when Alguersuari finally pitted at the end of lap five, set off in pursuit of Kunimoto, who had pushed his lead out to 2.5secs by this point.
Kunimoto's efforts to make a sprint for victory were in vain though when the safety car was deployed on lap eight to clear the wreckage of Merhi's Hitech car, the youngster ending his hopes of a strong top five finish with an accident towards the end of lap six..
The incident also managed to catch out Carlo Van Dam, who was having an outstanding drive up to that point having survived the early carnage to make up almost 20 positions by the end of the first lap. Picking off his rivals gradually, Van Dam was up to sixth when he was caught out by his stricken rival and forced into retirement.
It meant Mortara was straight back on the tail of the Tom's Toyota driver, ahead of Campos-Hull, Cozzolino, Brendon Hartley, Mika Maki, Renger van der Zande, Jon Lancaster, Laurens Vanthoor and Walter Grubmuller.
Not that Mortara could do much about Kunimoto's superior straight line speed on the restart, the Italian instead having to resist the attentions of Campos-Hull's Mercedes-powered HBR Motorsport machine. Indeed, the Japanese driver was wasting no time in re-establishing his advantage, ending the ensuing lap almost two seconds up on an unsettled Mortara.
Further back there was disappointment for Campos-Hull, whose sterling drive into a provisional podium position was ended on lap 13 by an over zealous move by Cozzolino, the Italian making contact with his rival and dropping themselves well outside the top ten.
It gave Mortara the breathing space he needed to mount a last gasp attack on Kunimoto, but while the F3 Euroseries runner-up tried it utmost to break down the gap, it simply wasn't enough to get close to him.
As such, Kunimoto walks away from Macau as something of a surprise winner, the 19-year-old joining the likes of Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and David Brabham in winning the coveted title.
Mortara was a disappointed second having been the pace setter for the large majority of the weekend, while Hartley showed impressive determination to be Carlin Motorsport's unlikely podium winner.
Maki ended a turbulent weekend, one that started with a heavy accident in free practice, with a fine run to fourth place, the Finn edging out van der Zande, the Dutchman managing a top five result for Prema despite starting at the back of the grid.
