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Speed merchants stay focused

Masterful Duval perfectly placed to extend Gallic stranglehold on intercontinental Formula Three event

Frenchman Loic Duval has promised to deliver the piece de resistance and extend France's reign as king of the road for another year at today's 52nd Macau Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old will attempt to become the fourth Frenchman in a row to win on the tight and twisting 3.8-mile circuit after he was installed as favourite to win the FIA intercontinental Formula Three race following another masterful performance during yesterday's qualification race.

He finished ahead of Pole Robert Kubica and Brazilian Lucas di Grassi in a relatively incident-free event to set up a thrilling finale.

Duval had been quickest in Friday's practice and looks poised to continue France's domination as he continued to put his rivals in the shade on one of the world's trickiest street circuits. He's now confident the tri-colours will be hoisted again at the end of the 15-lap race today. Fellow countrymen Tristan Gommendy, Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Premat have won the last three Formula Three races and Duval hopes he will be the next successful Frenchman on the Guia circuit.

'I am feeling confident. I am on pole position and that's much better than being at the back. We need to push again because there are a lot of drivers behind me who want to win the race too,' said Duval, who steered his ASM Formula 3 Dallara Mercedes-HWA to the chequered flag.

'For sure, I would like to be the next Frenchman to win at Macau, but it's a long race and it's difficult to win the race even if you start on pole. There have been a lot of flags and a lot of traffic during the past few days,' he said.

Duval has already poured the bubbly after he appeared on the podium following his win in the qualification race.

Asked whether it was strange to have listened to La Marseillaise and sprayed champagne after winning a warm-up race, Duval replied: 'Sure it's strange. I wish today's qualification was the actual race so I could really go out and celebrate. It would have been great for me.'

The Frenchman, who completed the 10-lap race 1.577 seconds ahead of Kubica, added: 'But this year, the race format is like that. It's only in Macau I believe. Normally in the championship, there would be a first race followed by a second race. There is only one race to win.'

Duval had lost the lead briefly to Kubica at the start after making a poor getaway, but was able to move back to the front on the run into Mandarin Bend. He then opened up a three-second gap by the end of the second lap and, although he lost time late in the race after getting caught behind a back marker, he was never threatened after that. He backed off on the final lap when victory was assured.

'I didn't really have a great start. The red lights took a long time to switch off and I was just behind Robert [Kubica]. But I knew it was going to be easy to pass him.

'After the first few laps, I was two or three seconds ahead and it was easy to look in the mirrors and see what Robert was doing,' said Duval. 'It was easy for me to push at the beginning and then it was just a question of keeping myself three or four seconds ahead.'

Kubica said there was nothing he could do to hold off Duval on the run down to Lisboa and claimed that his focus after that was on ensuring he kept the car intact for today's race rather than take unnecessary risks.

'The race went okay, but nobody was pushing as hard as they could,' said Kubica. 'This was only a qualification race. Tomorrow's race is the one that counts.'

Di Grassi enjoyed a good start going third after starting in fourth place. He overtook Manor Motorsport teammate Mike Conway on the run through the first corner.

Despite coming under threat from Conway on lap four after he lost momentum when he made a mistake at the final corner, di Grassi had no problem taking third spot.

'My start was good and I was pretty much behind Robert for most of the time. Here you have to overtake and not be overtaken and I was okay with finishing third. Tomorrow, the guy who turns the first corner will be hard to beat and we would have to push harder,' said Di Grassi.

Conway duly finished fourth with Italy's Paolo Montin taking fifth place ahead of Brazilian Joao Paolo de Oliveira and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima.

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