Slater got away brilliantly from second on the grid to move past pole position man Théophile Naël as they ran through Turn 1, and then never looked back. The SJM Theodore Prema Racing driver was 1.6 seconds ahead of the pack at the end of the first lap and eked out another one second each time around until he was more than five-seconds clear by the end of lap five.

From there, as he explained, it was all about managing his pace as he secured himself the top spot for Sunday’s main Macau Grand Prix. “It was important just to maintain the rhythm and keep ticking off the corners – which is always good fun,” he said.

Behind Slater, Boya had been the man on the move after making a brilliant getaway from sixth on the grid. The Spaniard had picked up a perfect slipstream with his momentum nearly carrying him past Slater – before his route closed off and he slightly tagged the leader’s left rear wheel.

While Boya eventually slotted into third behind Evan Giltaire after Lisboa Bend, he clearly had the pace to get past. Two attempts around the outside at Lisboa Bend on lap two and lap four were not quite enough, but he eventually muscled his way through at that turn on lap five. After that, he held the gap to Slater but was too far back to have any realistic hope of closing in for the win.

Naël, who had dropped back to fourth on the run to Lisboa Bend on the first lap, recovered to take third from Giltaire there on lap six and then shadowed his KCMG Enya Pinnacle Motorsport teammate Boya to take the final podium spot and the fastest lap of the race. Giltaire eventually finished fourth in his ART Grand Prix car, ahead of teammate Taito Kato and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny.