Alexander Sims fights his way from the back of the grid to finish P15 in Macau

British racing driver Alexander Sims this weekend contested the 30th running of the iconic Macau Formula Three Grand Prix.

Driving for ThreeBond with T-Sport - the team with which Sims drove to victory at the F3 Euroseries race at the Nurburgring in August - Sims had a strong qualifying session on Thursday afternoon; posting the seventh fastest lap time of the thirty cars.

Alexander continued to be firmly on the pace during Friday morning’s free practice session; setting the eighth fastest time ahead of the second qualifying session of the weekend.

Alexander Sims

Photo by: xpb.cc

Unfortunately Alexander’s qualifying session was affected by red flag periods, which meant he was only able to get one clear lap at the start of the session, and set the 17th fastest time.

With the results of the two qualifying sessions combined, he lined up for the qualifying race in P14.

On Saturday morning the British driver took to the grid in P14 and, despite there being only a handful of overtaking opportunities on this street circuit, he was able to carve his way through the field and after ten laps of racing crossed the finish line in P10.

Having set the fourth fastest lap time of the race on his way to tenth position, Alexander was hopeful of a strong showing in the main race on Sunday. Taking to the grid in tenth place, Sims had a difficult start after stalling on the grid. He was now at the back of a 30-car field with it all to play for.

Sims immediately set about working his way through the pack and, overtaking on average one car per lap, was up to P15 by the time the checkered flag fell after fifteen laps of racing.

Despite facing heavy traffic on every lap, Sims was still able to come away with the quickest first sector of the entire race.

“It’s been a weekend of mixed emotions. We came to Macau with a strong package, which we were able to continue to develop and progress over the course of the past four days.

It has been a great experience working with ThreeBond with T-Sport and both races proved we had a strong pace;” commented Alexander Sims.

“Sunday was a bit disappointing as I made a mistake at the start of the race which saw me stall and end up in P30. However I had an amazing race and made up 15 places in just 15 laps.

For me personally it has been my most competitive Macau race to date and I can take away a lot of positives from the weekend. I now head into the Winter looking forward to what 2013 will bring;” continued Alexander Sims.

Alexander Sims