Thirty-one–year-old Stuart Easton (PBM by the Venetian Hotel Kawasaki) stormed to the top of the timesheets with a time of 2.25.975 seconds in a perfectly-judged late charge that left his rivals no chance to respond as the second qualifying session at the Suncity Group Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 48th Edition came to a close.

Now the triple winner and lap record holder is perfectly positioned to mark his comeback after a three-year absence with a historic fourth victory: “It’s nice to be back, especially on pole position. That’s what we wanted to do today. Michael never made it easy at all. I felt comfortable on the bike, it’s just a matter of getting used to the circuit again after quite a long spell away. Think [the grip] is slowly getting there for the race tomorrow.”

Michael Rutter, 42, on the Milwaukee Yamaha, is chasing an astonishing ninth win on the 6.2km Guia Circuit and looked set for another pole start until the final few minutes of the second qualifying, but ended second fastest on 2.26.478, half a second off Easton’s pace but a second clear of third. Commented Rutter: “It’s really important to be on front row, that’s what matters. It would have been nice to have pole position, but I did think Stuart might just sneak past me. Hopefully it’ll be a good race tomorrow. It’s going to be a hard one!”

In third quickest place after the early-morning session ended was Northern Ireland’s Lee Johnston (PIRTEK PRO BOLT HONDA), the 25-year-old making his third visit to Macau and looking for a big-bike win at a major international event to put the seal on another strong season on the roads.

Fourth fastest after two sessions was last year’s winner Ian Hutchinson, on the second of the Paul Bird machines. His time was 2.28.285, a couple of seconds shy of pole, giving him plenty to think about before tomorrow’s race: “[It’s my] first time on that bike. We’ve tried to use as much track time as possible to make changes, and every time we’ve gone back out we’ve improved it, but we’re kind of running out of time. We’ve definitely made a big step forward today, so we’ll just keep chipping away.”

With ten riders lapping below 2 minutes 30 seconds in this morning’s much faster session, the scene is set for a classic 12 laps on the Guia Circuit. The Suncity Group Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 48th Edition is scheduled to begin at 15.30 local time on Saturday, November 15th.


As reported on the Macau GP Website
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