After Duval was penalised for a jump start, Di Grassi took the lead and held it until Carlin Motorsport's Robert Kubica passed him on lap ten.

[10] Most drivers avoided an incident except for Dan Clarke, who was stranded at the Melco hairpin and Cheong removed one of his car's wheels in a collision against a trackside wall.

[5] The first qualifying session was delayed by 20 minutes because Jonny Cocker crashed during practice for the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race and created a large dent in a barrier beside the track.

[11] When it did start, Duval, who moved from Signature Team to fill in for Hamilton at Macau,[12] was the early pace setter but Kubica resolved a loose seat and car set-up issues to steadily move up the order and top the time sheets with qualifying's final lap at 2 minutes, 12.754 seconds.

[11] De Oliviera, seventh, challenged Duval early in qualifying, Conway was the highest-placed rookie in eighth, Kohei Hirate was ninth and Perera was tenth.

The rest of the order was Romain Grosjean, Montin, Christian Bakkerud, Guillaume Moreau, Bruno Senna, Daisuke Ikeda, Kimball, Karl Reindler, Taku Bamba, Clarke, Filip Salaquarda, Ávila, Ho, Stephen Jelley, Lei, Merszei, Cheong and Steven Kane who set just one timed lap due to an oil leak.

[11][14] Qualifying was briefly halted by yellow flags after Cheong collided with the wall at San Francisco Bend turn and Nakajima removed his front suspension at Moorish Hill corner.

[11] Perera was ordered to meet the stewards after qualifying for missing the red light signal instructing him to enter the weighbridge.

The second qualifying session was stopped early on when Carbone entered the start/finish line straight too fast, glanced a barrier at the exit of the Reservoir Bend corner, and was stranded in the centre of the track.

[19] Kubica improved his lap but fell to third, while Conway gained four places to fourth despite a crash into the Police Bend barrier soon after.

De Oliviera maintained seventh, Nakajima moved to eighth and his teammate Carbone and Moreau completed the top ten qualifiers.

Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Yokomizo, Vettel, Kimball, Watts, Bakkerud, Hirate, Reindler, Bamba, Clarke, Grosjean, Jelley, Senna, Ikeda, Kane, Ávila, Salaquarda, Ho, Cheong, Lei and Merszei.

[21] After the session, the stewards ruled that di Grassi, Perera, and Reindler had not slowed sufficiently under yellow flag conditions for de Oliviera's crash and deleted their two quickest qualifying laps.

Conway, Duval, Carbone, Yokomizo, Kubica, Vettel, de Oliviera and Hirate followed in positions three through ten.

[9][1] During a pre-race reconnaissance lap, Bamba entered Reservoir Bend too quickly and collided with the rear of Cheong's car, which had come to a stop in its grid slot.

However, Duval reclaimed first place from Kubica entering Lisboa turn, as the latter failed to hold him off and instead focused on avoiding risks and preserving his car for Sunday's race.

[26][27] Carbone fell from ninth to nineteenth by the end of the first lap, while Watts gained five places entering Lisboa corner to eighth.

Carbone lost control of his car at the San Francisco Bend corner, narrowly avoiding a collision with a barrier alongside the track.

More overtakes occurred in the race's final laps, as Montin was passed by de Oliviera, Vettel overtook Watts, and Kimball and Bakkerud traded tenth place twice.

The final order was Bakkerud, Moreau, Clarke, Yokomizo, Perera, Grosjean, Reindler, Kane, Carbone, Ikeda, Jelley, Hirate, Salaquarda, Ávila, Ho, Merszei and Lei.

[1] Moreau crashed heavily midway through the session at Reservoir Bend, but his team rebuilt his car before the race.

During laps four and five, Salaquarda retired in the pit lane with an unspecified problem, and Yokomizo missed the braking point for Lisboa corner and crashed into the wall.

[28] Just as officials were about to disqualify Duval by waving the black flag,[28] he entered the pit lane at the start of lap six, ending his chances of becoming the fourth Frenchman in a row to win in Macau.

Jelley lost most of his front wing after colliding with Reindler's vehicle and delaying a small pack of cars.

Kubica attempted to overtake di Grassi on the outside on the eighth lap but lost control of his car and narrowly avoided dropping out of contention.

[28] A slower car impeded di Grassi as the leaders entered Mandarin Bend to begin lap ten, and Kubica tucked into his slipstream.

Clarke attempted to follow Duval through the next set of turns, but he braked too late and collided with the barrier at Faraway Hill.

Ho moved up ten places from his starting position to come 15th and Ávila, Ikeda, Lei, Merszei and Kane were the final finishers.