Guia Circuit

Route

Lisboa kink

Curve in front of San Francisco Hill

The Guia Circuit is a temporary motorsport racetrack that is set up every year on closed roads in the Macau Special Administrative Region of China .

At 6115 meters, the route is quite long for a street circuit and is driven clockwise. The track width varies between 7 and 14 meters. The narrow width and the sometimes invisible curves often lead to accidents that are only common in Macau in this form: a vehicle that has gotten out of control is thrown from the piles of tires back onto the track, largely blocks it and almost inevitably triggers a mass collision. The last time such a pile-up, in which 16 of 20 vehicles were involved, was triggered during the GT3 race in 2017.

From the start there are three long straights that are connected by two demanding full throttle curves. This is followed by a right -hand kink with the Lisboa kink , which is the only good opportunity to overtake. The following two kilometers lead through a mountainous landscape. On this piece there is the Solitude Esses , a combination of curves that is named after the former Solitude race track in Stuttgart . At the end of the downhill section, the Melco Hairpin hairpin is one of the slowest parts of all motorsport racetracks; overtaking is prohibited there. Then the route leads back to the start and finish through two right-hand curves.

The Macau Grand Prix has been held every year on the Guia Circuit since 1954 . There are races for touring cars , motorcycles and monopostos .

The most famous race is the Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup . In this race, the best drivers of the national and regional Formula 3 championships compete against each other and thus determine the unofficial Formula 3 world champion. In 2006 the Brit Mike Conway won , the German Adrian Sutil came third as the winner of the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. In previous years Ayrton Senna (1983), John Nielsen (1984), David Brabham (1989) and Michael Schumacher were able to compete (1990), David Coulthard (1991), Jörg Müller (1993), Sascha Maassen (1994), Ralf Schumacher (1995) and Takuma Satō (2001) in the list of winners.

The FIA F3 World Cup will take place there in 2019 , as there is now no European Formula 3 championship and international GP3 series , but an international Formula 3 . This race was won by Richard Verschoor in MP Motorsport .

Since 2005, the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) has held its season finale as part of the Macau Grand Prix on the Guia Circuit and thus represents the touring car race.

As a special feature, motorcycle races are also held on the Guia Circuit. No motorcycle races are held on other street circuits due to the high risk for drivers due to the lack of run-off zones . In 2005, the Frenchman Bruno Bonhuil had a fatal accident in Macau after he slipped into the guardrail due to a driving error.

In 2012 there were two fatal accidents within 24 hours of the 46th Macau Grand Prix. On Thursday of the race weekend, the Portuguese motorcycle rider Luís Carreira had a fatal accident during training. The accident happened on Fisherman's Curve. Chinese touring car driver Yau Wing Choi had a serious accident in the touring car training session on Friday and succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

See also

• List of motorsport racetracks

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chaos as race-cars pile-up in monster smash during the FIA ​​GT World Cup in Macau ( English ) The SUN. November 17, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
2. ^ Run one: Menu wins - Muller becomes world champion. motorsport-total.com, November 16, 2008, accessed February 23, 2012 . 

Web links

Commons : Guia Circuit  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official Homepage of the Macau Grand Prix (English)

Coordinates: 22 ° 11 '44.1 "  N , 113 ° 33' 14.6"  E