Dino Beganovic finished the 2024 FIA FR World Cup – Macau Grand Prix in eighth place after taking the chequered flag in a heavily interrupted and crash-strewn edition of the legendary Chinese street race.
Battling to recover from a frustrating sequence of events earlier in the weekend, Beganovic eventually survived a chaotic main race at the Guia Circuit on Sunday that featured one red-flag stoppage and five safety car interventions.
“It has been a very unusual weekend, even by Macau standards,” says Dino Beganovic. “Today we ran mainly behind the safety car and it was difficult to try and make up the ground we lost in qualifying. I think this weekend was a good example of Macau being Macau – and this time it didn’t play to our advantage.”
Beganovic’s weekend was particularly marred by a frustrating qualifying incident that saw the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy racer caught up in another driver’s crash after just one lap.
Beganovic had set the early pace in qualifying and was sitting P1 when the incident happened at the unsighted Police corner. Inflicting session-ending damage on his SJM Theodore PREMA Racing car, the Swede dropped to 15th in the final classification as times naturally tumbled on a drying track following earlier showers of rain.
“The moment that defined this weekend was qualifying and that costly crash that was outside of my control,” Dino Beganovic continues. “All of a sudden there was a car in the barriers on the other side of the corner and I simply had zero chance to avoid it. After something like that you need some luck to fight for the win.”
The incident left Beganovic in the midfield going into Saturday’s Qualifying Race, where he made up five spots despite another red-flagged and rain-hit contest limiting the number of actual racing laps available to move forward.
With the outcome of the Qualifying Race determining the starting grid for Sunday’s decisive Grand Prix, Beganovic lined up tenth for the finale and originally finished in the same position, but was later moved up to eighth following the disqualification of two rival drivers.
The 2024 edition of the Macau Grand Prix featured unparalleled conditions, with heavily changeable weather making an impact throughout the event and a multitude of red flags cutting running short.
“It has just been extremely chaotic and in the end we got nothing to show for our actual pace, which I think was genuinely good enough to fight for the victory,” Beganovic concludes. “I was P1 in qualifying when that incident happened and I felt confident in the car in both the wet and dry.
“I would have liked a few more laps and proper racing, but driving in Macau is always a huge pleasure. The driving sensation is incredible and I would love to come back in the future.”
Beganovic will now travel back to Europe to prepare for his up-coming FIA Formula 2 Championship debut in Qatar in two weeks’ time (November 29 – December 1).
RESULTS
FIA FR World Cup
Macau Grand Prix (CHN)
1: U. Ugochukwu (USA), R-Ace GP
2: O. Goethe (DEU), MP Motorsport
3: N. León (MEX), Pinnacle Motorsport
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8: D. Beganovic (SWE), SJM Theodore PREMA Racing
