major winner of a Formula Three championship not to compete in Macau for undisclosed reasons was the German champion Gary Paffett. Three competitors who did not take part in any Formula Three championship in 2002 received invitations from race organisers to enter the Macau Grand Prix. They were local Macanese drivers Jo Merszei, Michael Ho and Kit Meng Lei. Practice and qualifying A total of two one hour practice sessions preceded the race on Sunday: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. The first practice session held in hot, humid weather was delayed for ten minutes due to circuit officials repairing a tyre wall at Lisboa corner after practice for the local ACMC Trophy Race. Paolo Montin of TOM'S lapped fastest with a time of 2 minutes, 17.798 seconds in the session's closing seconds. The rest of the top ten were Yuji Ide, Gommendy, Narain Karthikeyan, Bruce Jouanny, Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Doornbos, Kosuke Matsuura, Pavlović and James Courtney. Katsuyuki Hiranaka blocked the track at the Melco hairpin when he became stranded across the turn until marshals got his car facing correctly. Fábio Carbone entered the corner too fast but he braked early to avoid a crash. Kerr hit the barrier at Fisherman's Bend and damaged his car's suspension and rear wing. Vitantonio Liuzzi went off the track and removed his car's left-hand corner. Qualifying was divided into two 45-minute sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon, and the second on Friday afternoon. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards their final starting position for Sunday's race. Matsuura led the first qualifying session with a time of 2 minutes, 15.768 seconds set in its closing seconds. Ide waited until his final lap to claim provisional second and was eight-tenths of a second slower. Courtney pushed hard on his final timed lap to be the highest-placed rookie in third. Montin had provisional pole position before dropping to fourth and going down the escape road at Lisboa corner. The unwell Kovalainen was as high as second but came fifth. Gommendy could not claim provisional pole position as he collided with a barrier leaving Reservoir bend with five minutes to go and bent his left-rear wheel bearing. Karthikeyan was seventh, Doornbos eighth. The French duo of Olivier Pla and Johanny rounded out the top ten. Renaud Derlot was the quickest driver not to enter the top