Sam Bird, the quickest of Manor's three drivers during qualifying, crashed out in the first lap of the 55th staging of the race.

The Surrey racer produced the second fastest time in initial qualifying – missing out on pole position during the final seconds of the session.

However, a three-place grid penalty was handed to him after he missed a weigh-bridge check during morning practice.

Nonetheless, he went into Saturday's qualification race fifth on the grid and ended the outing in the same position, to progress to Sunday's 55th Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix with a great chance of battling for a podium result.

Bird's participation lasted only as far as the run to Mandarin Bend though, when Roberto Streit collided with him, resulting in a double retirement.

Streit was fined for causing the accident, but that was scant consolation to Bird and Manor, who truly had the pace to fight for a rostrum finish at the very least.

Yorkshire's Jon Lancaster, making his competitive Manor Motorsport debut, ended his first ever appearance at Macau with a highly creditable 11th place finish, less than a second shy of the top 10.

For Japan's Kazuya Oshima, a series of very unfortunate problems blighted his chances and the Toyota Driver Programme member concluded the Grand Prix in 16th position.

"It's been a disappointing visit to Macau for us in the end, but as Sam proved in qualifying, we had a very quick car and the potential to do very well," said Manor boss John Booth.

He added: "Jon had a decent run on his first time at Macau, he missed a lot of track time during a couple of the sessions during the build-up so to finish just outside the top 10 wasn't bad at all, and he can take a lot of positives from that"