The Italian got away well from pole position and comfortably led the field on the run down to Lisboa Bend, while behind him there was drama as several leading contenders hit trouble.

Porsche’s Alessio Picariello, who had started third, spun coming out of the first corner and hit the barriers. Then, down at Lisboa Bend, Ayhancan Guven was accidentally tapped from behind by Porsche team-mate Laurin Heinrich and went into the tyre barriers, triggering a chain reaction crash that also put Luca Engstler and Dorian Boccolacci out and triggered a safety car.

By this time, BMW’s Raffaele Marciello was in second place after drafting past front row starter Ye Yifei through Lisboa after the start, with Heinrich up to third ahead of Joel Eriksson.

At the restart on lap four, Fuoco timed his getaway perfectly to edge clear of Marciello and steadily pull away. By the end of that lap he was 1.8 seconds clear and his advantage increased from there as he eventually came home just less than four seconds clear.

Speaking about his victory, Fuoco said: “It’s really special to win Macao, and I think we managed everything well. I think we deserved it and I’m really happy and proud to be here today.”

Marciello faced race long pressure from Heinrich, but his BMW’s top speed advantage meant he was able to stave off any threat from the Porsche behind and their positions remained unchanged. Ferrari’s Ye recovered from his poor start to finish fourth, ahead of Eriksson in fifth for Audi.