Daniel Ticktum has clinched provisional pole position for the Macau GP Qualification Race with a 2:11.044 after edging out Callum Ilott and Mick Schumacher during the opening FIA F3 World Cup qualifying session.
Ticktum and Ilott traded fastest times throughout the session around the famous Guia circuit, the 2018 Euro F3 runner-up eventually getting the better of his fellow Briton by just a tenth of a second.
Schumacher began the session slowly – building up the pace, the 2018 Euro F3 champion eventually slotted his Prema on the second row with Hitech GP's Jake Hughes for company in fourth place.
B-Max's Yuhi Sekiguchi managed to get himself on the third row of the grid in fifth place on a 2:11.674 with Pau Grand Prix race winner Sacha Fenestraz alongside him.
BMW DTM driver Joel Eriksson returned to F3 action for Macau and was able to put his Motopark in seventh place with the second B-Max of Alex Palou following behind on a 2:11.765, showing it was tightly contested in the midst of the top 10.
After narrowly missing out on victory with a last-lap crash in 2017, Ferdinand Habsburg could only muster ninth place on the grid ahead of Japan's Formula 3 champion Sho Tsuboi in his TOM's Dallara-Toyota.
Friday will see another practice and qualifying session, but the threat of rain could lead to Thursday's first qualifying setting the grid for Saturday's 10-lap qualifying race.
The finishing order from Saturday's race will then determine the starting order for the 15-lap final on Sunday.
