Formula Three is one of the "feeding" categories to develop the young drivers. The cars are prepared under the internationally uniform technical regulations defined by the FIA (Federation internationale de l'automobile) and many counties and regions around the world have their own championship series with the F3 cars. Macau Grand Prix - this year, held on 17-20 November - is the event where the top contenders from those championship series came together to decide "the champion of the champions" on the very demanding temporary street track in the ex-Portuguese settlement. ADVAN has been the sole official racing tire supplier of Macau Grand Prix for 29 years going back to 1983.

Whereas the race has usually been run in the hot - mostly exceeding 30 degrees Celsius - and humid conditions, surprisingly, it was rainy on Thursday this year. The first 45 minute practice session which started at five before eleven was run on the totally wet track due to the drizzle that started to fall around half past nine in the morning.

With only a few exceptions, including the case in 1987 which was hit by an unseasonable typhoon and all sessions of the day had had to be cancelled, the Macau Grand Prix has normally been favored by good weather, so this was one of very rare cases that the rain tires were used on the track. For an international F3 event, it is stipulated that three sets of wet tires are to be supplied per car for the weekend.

In the first qualifying session on Thursday, the champion of Euro F3 series, Robert Merhi, posted the fastest time of the session, 2'28"860. Marco Wittmann followed him and Felipe Nasr, the winner of the British F3 championship, rounded out the top three.

The second qualifying session which decided the starting grids for the qualification race was held on Friday. In contrast to the day before, as the weather was fine and mild, the track was dry throughout the day. After the fierce exchange of time attacks, the runner-up of the Euro F3 championship, Wittmann, secured the pole position for the qualification race, followed by Merhi and Antonio da Costa.

The 10 lap qualification race got under way one minute before half past two on Saturday under the sunshine, which meant the familiar Macau Grand Prix had come back in weather-wise. However, Alexander Sims had a shunt in the mountain section while the field was on the formation lap. The Briton failed to take his starting grid and the 29 drivers came back to the grids for the race.

While da Costa stalled at the start, four cars including Wittmann and Nasr ran down to the Lisboa corner, closely fighting for the lead position. But, for the time being, the German starting from the pole position defended the lead.

While the field was in the stalemate during the technical mountain section because overtaking was almost impossible there, then they displayed high speed battles in over 260km/h in the ocean side, using the slip streams each other. However, the order of leading group, Wittmann, Nasr, Merhi and Valtteri Bottas, remained the same until the race was nearing an end. But, on Lap 8, Jimmy Eriksson made a huge crash in the mountain side, which required the Safety Car to come out.

Eventually, the checkered flag fell at the end of Lap 10 when the field was still led by the Safety Car. As a result, Wittmann claimed the pole position for the final race on Sunday and Nasr, Merhi and Bottas followed. Kimiya Sato finished in ninth, the highest finish among the Japanese drivers.

Sunday was favored by good weather. After a series of supporting races, such as Macau GT Cup, the two races of WTCC final round and the motorcycle Grand Prix, the final race of the 58th Macau Grand Prix began at four minutes after half past three.

When the red signals went off, the two drivers sat on the front row, Wittmann and Nasr, made fairly good starts but, this time, Merhi on the third grid stalled. Getting surprised by the halted car in his path, Laurens Vanthoor spun on the spot after making desperate avoidance maneuver, involving Daniel Abt who also spun there. At the same time, Merhi was heavily hit from behind by Richie Stanaway and, as a result, three cars were forced to retire before leaving the grids during the eventful start of the race.

Although Bottas looked like he would take the lead when the field went through Mandalin, Wittmann regained the position in the approach to Lisboa. They were followed by Nasr and Daniel Juncadella. Then there was physical contact in the pack that included Carlos Huertas running in fifth, Sato and Yuhi Sekiguchi, resulting in the former two drivers spinning on the spot. Because of this, Hideki Yamauchi and Sekiguchi moved up to fifth and sixth respectively.

But the drivers had to cease fire soon after that because the Safety Car intervened due to the multi car accident at the start. The racing resumed on Lap 5 and there was a battle for the lead position between the top two on the way from Mandalin to Lisboa on that lap. And, as the outcome of this battle, Bottas hit the tire barrier and dropped out from the race due to the suspension damage. His retirement gave Juncadella the second place and Nasr, Yamauchi and Sekiguchi also gained one place each automatically. However, Yamauchi fell down to sixth at Lisboa on the next lap, as he was overtaken by Sekiguchi and Hannes van Asseldonk.

On Lap 7, Felix Rosenqvist made a shunt in the mountain section, which caused the Safety Car to come out again. When the race resumed at the beginning of Lap 10, the race leading Wittmann's acceleration at the re-start wasn't very good and he ended up losing two places on the following straightaway. Now Juncadella led the race, followed by Sekiguchi.

But the Japanese driver's second place didn't last long. Since the acceleration of his car from the "R" bend wasn't as good as that of his opponents, Sekiguchi allowed Nasr to overtake him at Lisboa on Lap 11 and Wittmann managed to get ahead of him in the similar way on two laps later, despite Sekiguchi's desperate wheel banging defense.

Then, on the penultimate lap of 15 lap race, there was another multi car pile up occurred on the straightaway after Mandalin and the Safety Car came out for the third time! On top of this, Sims' attempt to overtake Yamauchi in the mountain side on the same lap ended up with hitting the Japanese's car from behind and both cars halted on the track.

The remaining two laps were too short to clear up the wrecks. Thus, while the Safety Car headed to the pit road at the end of final lap, the field led by Juncadella just marched on to the finish line under the yellow flag which meant no overtaking was allowed. The race ended with Juncadella's victory, followed by Nasr and Wittmann in second and third respectively. Sekiguchi finished in fourth, only one place shy of the podium, and it was the highest finish among the Japanese drivers.