Kaffer wins race one at Macau.

German Pierre Kaffer drove a storming race to clinch victory in the opening heat of the Macau Grand Prix. The German, who started the race from fourth on the grid, capitalised on mistakes from front-row starters Takuma Sato and Narain Karthikeyan, before overcoming local hero Andre Couto in a thrilling battle.

Pole position man Karthikeyan got away well at the start, but he was soon overtaken by his team-mate Sato on the main straight as the cars headed to Lisboa. But Sato braked too late for the corner and went straight on into the tyre barriers, handing the lead back to Karthikeyan.

Karthikeyan immediately began to open up a lead at the front of the field and by the end of lap five he held a four second advantage over Couto, who had overtaken Ryo Fukuda on lap two for third and Kaffer for second on lap three. But on lap six, Karthikeyan lost control of his car at Matsuya corner and crashed into the barriers.

That incident, which brought out the Safety Car for two laps, handed the lead to Couto, who then began a fascinating battle with Kaffer for the lead after the restart on lap nine. At the start of lap ten, Kaffer tried to drive round the outside of Couto into Lisboa, but the local man stayed on the inside line and held onto his lead.

On lap 12, Kaffer successfully got past Couto as they drove into Lisboa but he left his braking a few metres too late and ran wide on the entry, coming close to hitting the barriers as he recovered. That handed Couto a little breathing space, but on lap 14 Couto finally succumbed to the pressure when he braked too late into Lisboa and ran wide. Kaffer went on untroubled to finish the 15 lap encounter a little more than three seconds ahead.

Behind Couto, Frenchman Mathieu Zangarelli held off intense pressure from a charging Paulo Montin to claim third spot. He was running fourth in the middle section of the race but managed to get past Ryo Fukuda on the main straight before Mandarin corner. Fukuda eventually finished fifth.

Patrick Friesacher bounced back from brushing the wall at the final corner on lap 12 to finish sixth, ahead of Tomas Scheckter and Enrico Toccacelo, while British driver Andy Priaulx claimed ninth.

Crashes claimed local driver Michael Ho, who hit the wall while exiting Mandarin on the opening lap, and Gianmaria Bruni, who was forced out of the race when he too hit the wall, on lap 10, at Lisboa.

Frenchman Jonathan Cochet's hopes of winning a triple crown of major F3 races ended when he ran over debris from Karthikeyan's accident on lap six - he would finish 20th.