Fuoco, driving a Ferrari 296 GT3, was never truly threatened during the 16-lap contest and took the chequered flag for AF Corse SRL with a winning margin of 3.960s.

Two-time FIA GT World Cup winner Raffaele Marciello finished second for BMW with Porsche-driving Laurin Heinrich making it three different Pirelli-equipped manufacturers crossing the line in the top three as Audi-powered Joel Eriksson finished fourth. Eriksson would later be demoted to fifth following a 10-second post-race penalty for his part in an incident at Turn 3.

There was action from the outset in the eighth running of the FIA World Cup when Alessio Picariello spun his Porsche exiting the first corner after a brush with Marciello as the pack jostled for position.

Ayhancan Güven, who’d just demoted the slow-starting Yifei Ye for third, then crashed into the tyre barriers at Lisboa Bend following contact with Heinrich.

Unable to take avoiding action, Luca Engstler charged into the back of Güven’s stranded Porsche with Dorian Boccolaci colliding with the rear of Engstler’s Lamborghini to trigger a safety car intervention.

Racing resumed on lap four with Fuoco – who won the Pirelli Pole Position Award for his Qualification Race success – pressing home his advantage to score the first FIA GT World Cup win by a non-German manufacturer.

Chinese driver Ye, who’d started second in his Ferrari, finished fifth with Sheldon van der Linde coming through from 12th on the grid to claim sixth. Christophe Haase, Yi Deng, Laurens Vanthoor and Benjamin Goethe rounded out the top ten.

As a previous winner of the FIA GT World Cup, Vanthoor was tipped for a strong event. However, a high-speed accident in Free Practice 1 compromised the Porsche driver’s weekend and left him out of the victory battle. “The mechanics did an amazing job but, unfortunately, they are not magicians,” he said. “The car had severe damage and although it drives safely, the performance is gone. My fault at the end of the day.”

Edoardo Mortara, nicknamed Mr Macau for his seven overall race wins on the streets of the Special Administrative Region of China, retired at the Melco Hairpin with an electrical issue on lap 12.

Antonio Fuoco (Italy), FIA GT World Cup winner: “Coming here after last year was tough but, in the end, it was a perfect weekend. We can never ask for something better than this and I’m just so happy for me, for the team and everyone, we really deserved this. It has been a really intensive season, but this is something we’ll remember for many years. I think it’s really special to win Macau, especially after last year, so we came back this year with one goal. We did an amazing job through all the weekend. I would like to thank all the team, because they pushed really hard for this race, for this weekend. This victory is for all of them. I think we really deserve it after last year. I'm happy and proud to be here today.”

Raffaele Marciello (Switzerland), second position FIA GT World Cup: “[The] Ferrari had a good start. They were also quick on the straights at one point, so it was very difficult for me to do more. Then, I had to think more about defending more the attacking, so P2 was the maximum. In Macau, even if you are not very good in the straight, you can still defend as it’s very difficult to overtake, but the car was very tricky to drive, so, at one point, I said: ‘I cannot catch Antonio [Fuoco] anymore, so I’ll just drive safely to the end.’”

Laurin Heinrich (Germany), third position FIA GT World Cup: “I knew, coming from P8, it would be difficult and my best chance to make some spots up is at the start, so I was okay with losing a position yesterday to start on the right side today, because through Turn 1, that's a bit better, especially when you are in the middle of the field. I had a great Mandarin and a great run [up to Lisboa]. I saw Ayhancan [Güven], my teammate, is on the very right, also making up spots. Both of us made a clear plan before the race that we work together there. Coming to the braking point, we were in the best position on the inside of Turn 3. During the braking I knew that now it's the time to push the brake pedal as hard as you can and that's what I did, but unfortunately, I got pushed into my teammate and he ended up in the wall, so that's very unfortunate. I feel, despite finishing on the podium, quite bad for him, because he would have deserved it as much as I do. I'm sure someday he will come back here and have great success.”

Competitors praise new FIA GT World Cup Super Pole format
Several drivers and manufacturer representatives were among those who praise the exciting new-for-2025 Super Pole format, which was adopted for the first time in the FIA GT World Cup.

After the usual 30-minute Qualifying Q1 session, Qualifying Q2 was fought out by the fastest 10 drivers from Q1. The one-at-time shootout, which drivers tackled with a new set of tyres from official supplier Pirelli, delivered a thrilling spectacle at the iconic street track.

Inaugural Super Pole winner Fuoco said: “I really like this format because you need to go out, you need to extract the maximum time from the car in only two laps. You need to put everything together. Macau is already special, and I think this format of qualifying makes Macau even more special.”

Raffaele Marciello: “This is a change I wanted, and I was happy when it was approved. For sure it’s an improvement. Maybe I’d like to see only one car on track per time to make it even more interesting, but then the track conditions can be changing. There are always pros and cons, but for sure it’s a great new format and I really like it.”

Laurin Heinrich: “The Super Pole format is extremely exciting for us. First of all, we had 16 world-class drivers here, so it was even hard to make it into the top 10. We know that we have only two laps on cold tyres, so that makes it especially exciting – it asks more from the driver, to heat up the tyres in the right way and to put everything together in one lap when you know it counts.”

Ferdinando Cannizzo, Head of Endurance Race Cars, Ferrari, said: “The format for us was really great, especially that the first 10 cars had the possibility to run clean laps, so you can focus really on your strengths, trying to maximise on the performance of the car. This worked perfectly well and I hope we’re going to keep this format.”

Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport: “I think the new format is really a step forward. It provides the drivers with clean laps, not influenced by traffic, and it’s more than one shot, which I think on such a track, is OK for the sake of fair qualifying.”