McGuinness on Macau provisional pole

Honda Racing’s John McGuinness has topped the fist qualifying session at the Macau Grand Prix to take provisional pole position for the Far Eastern race. The 23-time TT winner finished the day 0.2 ahead of Michael Rutter, after leading for most of the two-part session.

A crash for Russ Mountford brought out the red flags at the half way point, with the VRS Racing rider falling at Maternity and sustaining chest and pelvis injuries that were classified as serious but not life threatening.

Once the action got underway again after the delay, it was McGuinness who was quick to take the advantage from the chasing pack of Rutter, Hutchinson and Jessopp, though. Setting a series of fast laps with ten minutes left, he was able to pull out enough of a gap to stay clear of his friend and former teammate.

Rutter in turn finished a further 0.2 ahead of Jessopp, with Hutchinson leading the second row from Gary Johnson and Horst Saiger.

The action resumes with a final 45-minute qualifying session tomorrow morning at 0730 Macau time (2330 UK time).

POS		DRIVER	NAT	CAR	TIME	LAPS	GAP
1		John McGuinness	GBR	Honda	2:27.246	11
2		Michael Rutter	GBR	BMW Motorrad	2:27.476	14	0.230
3		Martin Jessopp	GBR	BMW	2:27.711	9	0.465
4		Ian Hutchinson	GBR	Kawasaki	2:28.776	11	1.530
5		Gary Johnson	GBR	BMW Motorrad	2:29.023	10	1.777
6		Horst Saiger	LIE	Kawasaki	2:29.263	13	2.017
7		Peter Hickman	GBR	BMW	2:29.463	12	2.217
8		Lee Johnston	GBR	BMW	2:29.529	9	2.283
9		Conor Cummins	IOM	Honda	2:29.650	12	2.404
10		Jimmy Storrar	GBR	Kawasaki	2:31.026	11	3.780
11		Dan Cooper	GBR	Honda	2:31.653	11	4.407
12		Steve Heneghan	IRL	Yamaha	2:32.366	12	5.120
13		Mark Miller	USA	EBR	2:32.588	10	5.342
14		Didier Grams	GER	W&G BMW	2:32.890	13	5.644
15		Stuart Easton	GBR	Yamaha	2:33.607	8	6.361
16		Brian McCormack	IRL	TAG Honda	2:34.492	8	7.246
17		Herve Gantner	SUI	BMW Motorrad	2:34.882	13	7.636
18		Sam West	GBR	Kawasaki	2:35.891	14	8.645
19		Allann-Jon Venter	RSA	Honda	2:35.948	9	8.702
20		Paul Shoesmith	GBR	BMW	2:36.180	14	8.934
21		Davy Morgan	GBR	Honda	2:36.625	12	9.379
22		Russell Mountford	GBR	VRS Honda	2:37.574	4	10.328
23		James McBride	GBR	Kawasaki	2:37.713	12	10.467
24		Nuno Caetano	POR	Kawasaki	2:37.760	6	10.514
25		Ben Wylie	GBR	Bimota	2:38.062	10	10.816
26		Dan Kruger	CAN	BMW Motorrad	2:38.291	7	11.045
27		Ivan Lintin	GBR	Kawasaki	2:38.430	11	11.184
28		Brandon Cretu	USA	Bimota	2:39.639	8	12.393
29		Andre Pires	POR	Yamaha	2:40.104	7	12.858
30		Tom McHale	GBR	Honda	2:46.056	11	18.810
31		Michael Sweeney	IRL	Kawasaki	2:53.825	3	26.579