Antonio Fuoco avenged his disappointment from last year by clinching a first win for Ferrari in Macau's FIA GT World Cup with a dominant performance.
Fuoco tangled with Raffaele Marciello 12 months ago but the BMW driver never had a chance to challenge this time around as Fuoco's AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 maintained its superiority from both qualifying and the qualification race.
Fuoco kept the lead at the start of the main race while Marciello used his Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3's superior straightline speed to charge into second from fourth at the start. But a slight brush with Alessio Picariello's Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R going through the first corner sent Picariello spinning into the barriers.
There was more drama shortly afterwards as Laurin Heinrich nudged fellow Porsche driver Ayhancan Guven into the barriers at Lisboa, with Luca Engstler (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) and Dorian Boccolacci (Porsche) also both eliminated.
The inevitable safety car period appeared to give Marciello an opportunity to resume his battle with Fuoco from last year, but the Ferrari driver managed the restart brilliantly and never gave Marciello a chance to attack.
Fuoco's lead by the end of the first lap of the resumption stood at 1.818 seconds and he continued to pull clear from the BMW over the remainder to eventually cross the line almost four seconds ahead.
It capped a successful stretch for Ferrari as Fuoco helped guide the Prancing Horse to its first top-flight world sportscar title in 53 years in Bahrain's World Endurance Championship decider the previous weekend.
Marciello faced increasing pressure from Heinrich and Joel Eriksson's Audi as the 16-lap contest wore on but was able to keep second place.
Heinrich completed the podium, but both he and Eriksson will face a post-race investigation over their potential roles in the chaos at Lisboa on the opening tour.
The Harmony Racing Ferrari of Yifei Ye had lined up alongside Fuoco on the front row but was delayed when Marciello got by, which compromised him on the run to Lisboa. Ye fell to fifth and was never able to recover any of the positions.
The top six was completed by BMW's Sheldon van der Linde, who bounced back from glancing the barriers in qualifying to navigate the first-lap drama and rise from 12th.
Christopher Haase's Audi was seventh ahead of Deng Yi's Ferrari, while a miserable event for 2016 winner Laurens Vanthoor ended with his Porsche finishing ninth after he went straight on at Lisboa upon the restart.
Update: Eriksson was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the opening-lap collision, dropping him behind Ye to fifth in the updated classification. Heinrich escaped any punishment and retained his podium finish.
Race results:
| Cla | Nº | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari | 40'19.865 | |
| 2 | 53 | R.Marciello | BMW | 40'23.825 | 3.960 |
| 3 | 22 | Laurin Heinrich | Porsche | 40'24.474 | 4.609 |
| 4 | 46 | Joel Eriksson | Audi | 40'24.838 | 4.973 |
| 5 | 83 | Yifei Ye | Ferrari | 40'25.410 | 5.545 |
| 6 | 31 | S.van der Linde | BMW | 40'35.116 | 15.251 |
| 7 | 45 | C.Haase | Audi | 40'35.680 | 15.815 |
| 8 | 37 | Deng Yi | Ferrari | 40'38.160 | 18.295 |
| 9 | 992 | Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche | 40'38.505 | 18.640 |
| 10 | 5 | Benjamin Goethe | McLaren | 40'45.177 | 25.312 |
| 11 | 36 | Adderly Fong | Audi | 41'31.292 | 1'11.427 |
| - | 63 | Edoardo Mortara | Lamborghini | 26'53.187 | |
| - | 19 | Luca Engstler | Lamborghini | - | |
| - | 911 | A.Picariello | Porsche | - | |
| - | 11 | Ayhancan Guven | Porsche | - | |
| - | 23 | D.Boccolacci | Porsche | - |
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