Felix Rosenqvist took victory in a dramatic Macau Grand Prix final, despite falling from pole position to fourth in the opening seconds of the legendary Formula 3 race.

Rosenqvist was passed into the first kink by team-mate Lucas Auer, and also fell prey to Tom Blomqvist and Esteban Ocon on the long run to Lisboa.

Blomqvist moved level with Auer for the lead, and the Austrian was so late on the brakes defending his advantage that he skirted the escape road, rejoining fourth.

In his wake, Blomqvist turned in as Ocon tried to stick his nose inside, the two colliding.

Both continued, with Ocon veering right to defend the inside line, but his steering was broken and he went straight on at San Francisco Bend, taking Blomqvist into the barriers.

There was a chain-reaction pile-up behind, with Yu Kanamaru getting launched over Jordan King and then Blomqvist before landing on a wall at the side of the track, his right-rear wheel inches from Ocon’s head.

The race was red-flagged and restarted behind the safety car. When it went green Rosenqvist nailed the restart, but the sister Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes of Auer slipstreamed him down to Lisboa and again took the lead – although Auer again outbraked himself and ran wide.

That promoted Nick Cassidy to second in the ThreeBond/T-Sport Dallara-NBE, and the New Zealander looked comfortable in that position for a long time.

With a couple of laps remaining Cassidy lost time in the final sector, and Auer moved into his slipstream, passing him on the run to Lisboa. But yet again he ran wide, allowing Cassidy to sneak back into second.

Auer then retook the position later in the lap, and pulled clear to earn the Berlin-based Mucke team a one-two, with Rosenqvist’s winning margin 4.372 seconds.

Cassidy, on only his fifth F3 race outing, completed the podium on a tremendous day for the T-Sport team, with fellow British squad Double R Racing equally delighted with Roberto Merhi’s fourth place. The Spaniard withstood a late attack from Prema Powerteam driver Nicholas Latifi.

Stefano Coletti was a distant sixth in his EuroInternational car, just managing to fend off a charging Max Verstappen, the Van Amersfoort Racing prodigy storming from 24th on the grid to seventh.

Santino Ferrucci, Japanese championship ace Kenta Yamashita and Gustavo Menezes completed the top 10.

Of the other UK drivers, Will Buller climbed from the back of the grid to finish 14th, Dan Wells was 17th, Sam MacLeod was 20th after an off at Lisboa, and King retired his repaired car two laps after the restart due to a puncture.

RESULTS – 15 LAPS:

Rosenqvist scores Macau Grand Prix win amidst crash chaos