Macau Grand Prix: Steve Plater wins in Macau

Steve Plater won his second successive Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix for the AIM Yamaha team after getting the best of the backmarkers on the final lap of the race.

The 34-year-old from Lincolnshire came out on top after he and Stobart Honda rival John McGuinness encountered two lapped riders at the Melco Hairpin.
 
Steve Plater was able to pass the two backmarkers and pulled away to win by over four seconds on the AIM Racing Yamaha 1000. John McGuinness, winner of the race in 2001, had the consolation of setting a new lap record for the event at 2:26.096 seconds.

“I think there’s some snipers out there having a go at me, though, because there’s pieces of my helmet missing,” said Steve Plater afterwards.

“I had a big crash last week at the Qatar Eight hour, and hurt my arm, which gave me really bad arm pump here, and making me not quite as accurate, so I’ve been clipping the wall with my shoulder and head in places!

Michael Rutter’s hopes of a record-breaking seventh win in the race never materialized and he didn’t even make it to the podium on the Aviva MSS Kawasaki.

He was forced to take evasive action up a slip road at the 90 degree Lisboa corner three laps from the end when Yamaha Austria rival Thomas Hinterreiter refused to back off as they tried to outbrake each other. The Austrian was placed third.

American Jeremy Toye had his best ever finish in Macau by taking fourth place but well over 30 seconds behind the top three.  Manxman Conor Cummins, the youngest rider in the race at 21 years-of-age, was fifth home.
 
Scot Steve Allan won the 600 class for the third year in a row, on the AIM Racing Yamaha 600, beating German Rico Penzkofer by over 12 seconds. Another Scot Callum Ramsay was third on a Solent Scientific Honda 600.

Macau Grand Prix race results:

1. Steve PLATER AIM Yamaha 37:03.845
2. John MCGUINNESS Stobart Honda +4.120
3. Thomas HINTERREITER Yamaha Austria Racing +10.391
4. Jeremy TOYE Lee’s Cycles Racing Suzuki +42.151
5. Conor CUMMINS Yamaha DMR Racing +45.650
6. Mark MILLER Honda Corona Extra +50.560
7. Les SHAND Honda BTS Racing +57.247
8. James MCBRIDE Yamaha JV Racing +1:06.028
9. Luis CARREIRA Suzuki Benimoto Yoshimura +1:09.980
10. Martin FINNEGAN MV Agusta +1:10.429
11. Michael RUTTER Aviva MSS Kawasaki +1:14.775
12. Steve ALLAN (600) AIM Yamaha +1:35.066
13. Cameron DONALD Kawasaki Bollinger +1:44.882
14. Rico PENZKOFER (600) Yamaha Austria Racing +1:47.637
15. Dennis HOBBS Yamaha Slingshot Racing +1:49.721