Michael Rutter Takes Provisional Pole In Macau

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Michael Rutter, the King of Macau, and Stuart Easton, the Young Pretender, locked swords on the opening day of qualifying for Saturday’s Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 44th Edition.

Rutter, the 38-year-old British racer looking for a record-breaking seventh victory in the Far East classic, topped the 45-minute timed qualifying session, but by just a fifth of a second, ahead of Easton, the 27-year-old Scot who is aiming to win his third Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix in a row.

Both men lapped under the existing qualifying lap record of 2:25.476, set last year by Easton.

Rutter, on the Team of Paris – AXA Ducati 1098 went round the 6.2km Guia street circuit in 2:25.245 seconds, with Easton making his debut on the Kawasaki Racing Team bike a fraction slower.

Big surprise was the performance of American Jeremy Toye (Lee’s Cycles Racing BMW 1000) making his seventh appearance at the event, who qualified third fastest, but over two seconds slower than Rutter and Easton.

Simon Andrews, the 24-year-old British racer, was four quickest on his MSS Colchester Kawasaki, less than a quarter of a second slower than Toye.

John McGuinness, on the IGT/sorrymate.com Honda, winner of the race in 2001, was fifth fastest, over a second slower than Andrews.

Final qualifying session for Saturday’s 44th running of the event takes place tomorrow (Friday).

Full results:

POS	NO	CL	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	TIME	LAPS	GAP	KPH
1	6		Michael RUTTER	GBR	Team of Paris - AXA	2:25.245	11		151.68
2	1		Stuart EASTON	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team	2:25.448	14	0.203	151.47
3	57		Jeremy TOYE	USA	Lee’s Cycles Racing	2:27.323	12	2.078	149.54
4	17		Simon ANDREWS	GBR	MSS Colchester Kawasaki	2:27.519	15	2.274	149.35
5	4		John McGUINNESS	GBR	IGT/sorrymate.com	2:28.691	14	3.446	148.17
6	2		Keith AMOR	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team	2:29.206	14	3.961	147.66
7	33		Luis CARREIRA	POR	Benimoto Suzuki Cetelem	2:29.564	14	4.319	147.30
8	15		James STORRAR	GBR	DMR Racing	2:29.674	14	4.429	147.20
9	69		Gary JOHNSON	GBR	MOCHA/IGT A.I.M. Suzuki	2:30.162	12	4.917	146.72
10	37		James HILLIER	GBR	MOCHA/IGT A.I.M. Suzuki	2:30.674	13	5.429	146.22
11	40		Martin JESSOPP	GBR	Team of Paris - AXA	2:30.679	12	5.434	146.21
12	11		Stephen THOMPSON	GBR	MSS Colchester Kawasaki	2:31.431	14	6.186	145.49
13	5		Cameron DONALD	AUS	Relentless Suzuki by TAS	2:31.508	14	6.263	145.41
14	31		Mark MILLER	USA	Mocha BMW	2:32.813	14	7.568	144.17
15	13		Rico PENZKOFER	GER	Mocha BMW	2:33.364	10	8.119	143.65
16	9		James McBRIDE	GBR	Pazzo/Downview Finance	2:33.815	10	8.570	143.23
17	10		Chris PERIS	CAN	Iron Horse BMW ESP	2:33.964	13	8.719	143.09
18	12		Horst SAIGER	AUT	MV Agusta Grisoni	2:34.443	16	9.198	142.65
19	68		David JOHNSON	AUS	East Coast Racing	2:35.297	15	10.052	141.87
20	8		Mark BUCKLEY	GBR	Luminox BMW	2:36.756	15	11.511	140.55
21	50		Dan KNEEN	IOM	DMR Racing	2:37.738	14	12.493	139.67
22	23		Michal DOKOUPIL	CZE	East Coast Racing	2:38.550	15	13.305	138.95
23	26		Didier GRAMS	GER	Team Heidger-Motorsport.de	2:38.776	14	13.531	138.76
Qualification Maxima				2:39.769
	32		Joao FERNANDES	MAC	Team of Paris - AXA	2:41.198	13	15.953	136.67
	35		CHEUNG Wai On	HKG	Cheung Wai On	2:41.882	13	16.637	136.09
	22		Sean DWYER	USA	Vicious Cycle Racing	2:41.945	13	16.700	136.04
	7		Anthony Dos SANTOS	FRA	Team of Paris - AXA	2:42.677	15	17.432	135.43
	27		Fernando COSTA	POR	Clube Motorizado do Troco	2:42.979	13	17.734	135.18
	18		SOU Sio Hong	MAC	Sou Sio Hong	2:43.518	16	18.273	134.73
	70		IP Weng Keong	MAC	Ip Weng Keong	2:57.151	6	31.906	124.36