The 56th Macau Grand Prix, which is widely regarded as the race of champions from the major Formula three championships around the world, was held at Ghia Circuit set up in the city of Macau.

Although the race is now respected as one of the most important classic events in the East, it started as just a local event during the off season. But, since 1983 when the race organizers chose F3 cars as the machinery for the Grand Prix race, it has rapidly grown to an international event and earned today's status.

ADVAN has played an important role in the history of this event.

Major F3 championships are run under common technical regulations and control tire rules, though tire suppliers may be different for each championship, which provides a level battle field for aspiring young racers.

It can be said that the control tire rules have been a core factor of the F3's worldwide success. And, as for the Macau Grand Prix, ADVAN has been honored to be the official tire supplier for 27 consecutive years since 1983.

The battles were so very hot from the day one, November 19. In the first practice session on Thursday, Marcus Ericsson entered by Tom's was the fastest driver with a relatively large margin of 0.5 sec to Edoardo Mortara who came in second. The Swede remained in the same position during the first qualifying session in the afternoon, but the gap with the second fastest man in the session, Daniel Ricciardo, became much smaller and less than a tenth of a second.

On the next day, Ericsson dominated the second qualifying session and secured the pole position for Saturday's race with a new course record and he was closely followed by Jean-Karl Vernay. Stefano Coletti finished the session only in ninth but even his time was fast enough to break the existing course record. This clearly showed the whole field was much faster than that of last year.

The qualifying race was run on Saturday, November 20. This race was only to decide the starting grids for the decisive final race on Sunday. Starting from the second grid, Vernay took the lead in the beginning of this race by catching the pole sitter, Ericsson, who didn't make his best start, well before they went through Mandarin Bend. But Ericsson didn't give up and regained the lead position in the entry to the first tight corner, Lisboa, where very hard braking was required.

Behind the fight for the lead, however, there was an accident in the following pack and the Safety Car had to come out even before the leading car completed the opening lap.

After the Safety Car period of two laps the race resumed on Lap 3. Vernay fully utilized this opportunity and managed to overtake Ericsson at the end of sea side straightaway by getting a tow of his opponent. As soon as regaining the lead, the Frenchman gradually pulled away from Ericsson and now the Tom's driver's main concern was Mortara who was threatening his position from behind.

On Lap 7, another accident in a back markers' group caused the second Safety Car period of the race. As it took some time to clear up the track, the Safety Car was only able to leave the course at the end of the final lap, so the whole field had to finish the race under yellow flag. Consequently, the winner of this qualifying race, Vernay, sat on the pole position for the final race but many expected that he would be pursued very hard by Ericsson and Mortara who finished the race in second and third respectively.

The final race was the main event of the Sunday afternoon. Although it was interrupted by the red flag in the opening lap due to a multi car crash soon after the start, the race was basically a duel between the Signature teammates, Vernay and Mortara.

The race began with Mortara's lead. By making a very good getaway, the Italian racer jumped up from the third grid to take the top slot and led the field through Lisboa and the mountain section. But, as mentioned above, the race was stopped because of an accident before he came back to the pit straight and to be restarted with the Safety car start procedure.

Soon after the racing resumed, Vernay passed Mortara at Lisboa. Then the top two gradually increased a gap to followers and, on their way to do so, Mortara registered the fastest lap in a 2'11" bracket twice - 2'11"517 and then reduced it to 2'11"088 - before it was renewed by Vernay on Lap 6 with 2'10"792. This meant the leaders were running in significantly faster pace than the rest of the field and clearly in a class of their own. Meanwhile, the following pack was somewhat deadlocked, though there were a few skirmishes here and there, and continued in a fixed order lap after lap.

But the situation moved in the closing phase. By putting some very good lap times, Mortara managed to reduce the gap with Vernay and, after making the most of slipstreaming on the straightaway, finely overtook his teammate at the entry to Lisboa on Lap 12. The top two finished the race in this order and Mortara scored his maiden victory at Macau.

The battle for the third place also saw a reshuffle in the last minutes. On lap 12, Sam Bird who was running in fifth caught and passed Ericsson, as the Swede's pace slumped a bit. In front of the Briton, Valtteri Bottas looked to secure the third place but he suddenly slowed down due to a mechanical problem on the final lap, so Bird eventually succeeded the position and got a remaining place on the podium.