Oliver Jarvis has taken victory in the qualifying race for the Macau Grand Prix after coming out on top of a race long battle with British F3 International Series title winner Marko Asmer.
In a race that was red-flagged following a number of incidents, Jarvis took victory when the result was called at the completion of seven laps, the Team Reckless Tom's man finishing less than two seconds ahead of Asmer and fellow Tom's driver Kazuya Oshima who completed the podium.
As is the norm in Macau, there was drama at the start with a multi-car incident coming on the run down to Lisboa that eliminated front-runners Sebastien Buemi and Edoardo Mortara from the race and delayed a number of other runners. Jarvis meanwhile had lost the lead at the start and was following Asmer when the Safety Car was deployed to remove the Signature Plus car of Esteban Guerrieri which had avoided the first corner incident only to go off later round the lap.
When the race resumed, Jarvis made his move as he got a tow from Asmer and blasted past on the run to Lisboa before starting to open up a lead over both the Hitech man and team-mate Oshima. However, two incidents in as many laps one involving Nico Hulkenberg and Bruno Senna and one including Atte Mustonen led to the race being halted and the result counted back to lap seven, giving Jarvis victory.
It was a good race, the Briton reflected, it's just a shame that the Safety Car and the red flags played a part in it. I had a good battle with Marko but I seemed to have more pace than him in the early part of the race.
Behind Jarvis, Asmer and Oshima, James Jakes took fourth for Manor Motorsport while rookie Sam Bird capped a fine day for the Brits by taking fifth place. The Carlin drivers result was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he started the race in 15th place and made up ten places on the opening lap alone, admitting that all he had thought about during the opening lap was not to hit anything and get round turn one'.
Yelmur Buurman was sixth, with Stephen Jelley, Roberto Streit, Kodai Tsukakoshi and Niall Breen rounding out the top ten.
