This came as 139 illegal car races were reported in the first 11 months of last year -- a surge of 40 percent from 99 in the whole of 2019, police said.

At 7 am this morning, police received complaints about noise from the sports cars racing westbound along Island Eastern Corridor.

Police then carried out an operation codenamed “Fossington”, deploying multiple police vehicles to tail the sports cars -- with Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis among them.

Later, the sports cars were intercepted on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai near old Wan Chai police station.

Shortly afterwards, police officers recorded information on the sports cars’ drivers.

One of the sports cars, a Nissan GT-R sports car -- believed to have been illegally modified, was towed away, whereas others were allowed to go.

No one was arrested throughout the operation.

Police said the Nissan GT-R sports car allegedly breached the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations, and therefore it had to be towed away for further inspections.

Meanwhile, nine other sports cars were slapped with Defective Vehicle Reports that required the vehicles to undergo inspections, they added.

“Police will keep safeguarding the safety of citizens and enhance the road safety awareness of road users via stringent traffic enforcement actions,” police said.

The unreal scene of luxury sports cars parked up on one of Hong Kong’s busiest thoroughfares had gone viral online, as patrons and drivers circulated pictures on social media.

“The sports cars were paving the way for the Macau Grand Prix, ensuring the motorsport road race’s smooth operation,” one netizen jokingly wrote on Facebook.

Police usually step up enforcement action in the run-up to the Macau Grand Prix typically set for November each year.

But whether the Macanese motorsport road race could go on this year would have to depend on the developments of Macau’s Covid-19 pandemic, the SAR’s Sports Bureau president Pun Weng-kun said earlier.

Pun said but regardless of the pandemic, preparation work for the Macau Gand Prix, such as staff training, had been ongoing.

“The Macau authority has come to an understanding with lots of associations that the signing of any agreements [related to the Macau Grand Prix] might be postponed due to [potential progression of] the pandemic,” he said.

“International Automobile Federation [one of the organizers of the Macau Grand Prix] also understands such a possible arrangement.”

In a similar incident last year, at least 11 sports cars involved were not intercepted by police however.

On October 18, the sports cars were seen racing along Connaught Road Central Flyover towards Western Habor Crossing at around 7 am. The action was captured on dash-cam footage.

On reaching Western Habor Crossing, one of the sports cars rammed into several traffic cones, after which a staffer at the crossing signaled the vehicles behind the sports cars to pay attention to the traffic condition.