Montin tops first Macau practice.

Italy's Paolo Montin proved to be the fastest man around the enclave, as he topped the opening qualifying session for this weekend's Macau Formula Three Grand Prix.

Driving for Target Racing under heavy cloud, the category veteran put three-tenths of a second between himself and nearest challenger, India's Narain Karthikeyan, while a full second separated him from anyone outside the top three.

Karthikeyan, having moved back from the absent Stewart Racing to a more comfortable berth at Carlin Motorsport, made the most of his experience to take a provisional second place, sandwiched equally between Montin and third-placed Jonathan Cochet, despite hitting the wall. Cochet lost time with slower drivers, but still hopes to move up at least one more place in the second session, as he attempts to crown a season that has already landed him the French championship, Zandvoort Masters and Pau titles.

Takuma Sato proved to be the best of the rest, giving Carlin two drivers in the top four, but felt he could have been quicker after blowing an engine. The Japanese, who dominated the second half of the British series, headed Robert Lechner and Gianmaria Bruni in the top six. Macau's favourite son, Andre Couto, was seventh. The two British representatives, Ben Collins and Andy Priaulx languished down in 15th and 21st places for RC Benetton and Manor Motorsport respectively.

Patrick Freisacher, who has made an impact with the Red Bull F3000 squad in recent weeks, clocked only 22nd fastest lap, while Tiago Monteiro, winner of the Spa round of the British series, was last of all after striking the wall and stopping the session early on. Tomas Scheckter was 14th, one place adrift of Swiss Racing Team partner Alex Yoong.

Qualifying times - Macau F3GP.

1 Paulo Montin Target Dallara-Opel 2mins 15.374secs
2 Narain Karthikeyan Carlin Dallara-Mugen 2mins 15.676secs
3 Jonathan Cochet Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 15.925secs
4 Takuma Sato Carlin Dallara-Mugen 2mins 16.380secs
5 Robert Lechner TOMS Dallara-Toyota 2mins 16.616secs
6 Gianmaria Bruni Fortec Dallara-Mugen 2mins 16.733secs
7 Andre Couto BSR Dallara-Opel 2mins 16.755secs
8 Pierre Kaffer HMS Dallara-Opel 2mins 16.790secs
9 Ryo Fukuda Promatecme Dallara-Renault 2mins 17.070secs
10 Sebastien Phillipe Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 17.376secs
11 Peter Sundberg Prema Dallara-Opel 2mins 17.480secs
12 Mathieu Zangarelli Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 17.572secs
13 Alex Yoong Swiss Racing Dallara-Opel 2mins 17.580secs
14 Tomas Scheckter Swiss Racing Dallara-Opel 2mins 17.616secs
15 Ben Collins RC Benetton Dallara-Opel 2mins 17.915secs
16 Seiji Ara Toda Dallara-Mugen 2mins 18.004secs
17 Haruki Kurosawa TOMS Dallara-Toyota 2mins 18.012secs
18 Enrico Toccacelo Prema Dallara-Opel 2mins 18.577secs
19 Yuji Ide Skill Dallara-Mugen 2mins 18.941secs
20 Milos Pavlovic RC Benetton Dallara-Opel 2mins 19.378secs
21 Andy Priaulx Manor Dallara-Mugen 2mins 19.436 secs
22 Patrick Friesacher BSR Dallara-Opel 2mins 19.808secs
23 Zsolt Baumgartner GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 19.812secs
24 Lee Ying Kin Fortec Dallara-Mugen 2mins 19.934secs
25 Shinichi Takagi Inging Dallara-Toyota 2mins 20.011secs
26 Toshihiro Kaneishi GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 20.224secs
27 Lei Kit Meng Manor Dallara-Mugen 2mins 23.053secs
28 Michael Ho GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 23.891secs
29 Joe Merszei HMS Dallara-Opel 2mins 24.515secs
30 Tiago Monteiro ASM-Elf Dallara-Renault 4mins 10.834secs