Chinese racing champion Marchy LEE Yin-Kin's Macau Grand Prix weekend went from bad to worse, after a start-line incident took him out of Saturday's qualifying race, which will put him at the back of the grid for Sunday's main race.

The Monarch Lubricants Red Bull Team Meritus driver from Hong Kong was back in 25th at the start of the qualification race, which determines the start order of Sunday's race. Other on-track incidents had hampered his qualifying performance on Thursday and Friday. Lee made an excellent start when the lights went out, making one place immediately, but was forced to the right to avoid an accident involving the stalled Japanese driver Nakajima. However Tung Ho-Pin, who had started directly behind Lee, was unable to avoid Lee's evasive manoeuvre and the two clashed, sending Tung into the air and Lee in to the wall.

"I knew from my experience in Macau that the lights would go out quite quickly, so I made a really good start, but this meant I came up on the accident really quickly. The only way I could go was to the right, and unfortunately Ho-Pin [Tung] hit me and we were both out of the race," said a disheartened Lee. "I'll be starting from the back tomorrow, but this is Macau so anything can happen. I hope to make up quite a few places and get the best result I can considering the circumstances."