HICKMAN PICKS UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF
November 14, 2019

Peter Hickman underlined his credentials as the fastest road racer in the world by being easily the fastest road racer in Macao once again as the first practice session for the 53rd edition of the race ended with the MGM by Bathams BMW more than a second clear of his nearest rival at 2:28.007. For a long while the gap had been over two seconds but as Hickman sat in pitlane watching the timing screens, the rest of the field closed up behind him but never quite threatened to reach him.

This was a brilliant start to the Suncity Group 66th Macau Grand Prix weekend, an hour of track action with no problems bar the occasional overshoot as various riders explored the true meaning of late braking, coming down from more than 270kph to the 90-degree right turn at Lisboa.

But as ever the story of a fast lap around the 6.2km Guia Circuit is written in the hills overlooking the city, and eight-time winner Michael Rutter rode some perfect sectors to put the MGM by Bathams Honda RC213V within a second of Hickman’s time.

David Johnson was third quickest on his first outing on the Tak Chun Group by PBM Ducati, Paul Bird’s team rounding off a dominant season in the British Superbike Championship with return to Macao that looks likely to have podium possibilities. His team-mate is John McGuinness, the hugely successful and experienced road racer made good use of the machine on which Scott Redding won this year’s BSB crown to go fourth quickest by the end of the hour-long session at 2.29.817.

Horst Saiger was next up on the Saiger Racing Yamaha, but a couple of seconds off the pace, and heading up a second group of closely-matched riders. Just behind him on the timesheets was Lee Johnston and his Ashcourt Racing BMW team-mate Gary Johnson. Didier Grams (G&G Motorsport BMW) was a 8th and then strong performances from Rob Hodson (JGH Racing BMW) and Erno Kostamo (MGM by Penz 13) rounded out the top ten.

The free practice session is only a form guide, and the first qualifying session will establish a provisional grid, and although Hickman looks like continuing the dominant form he showed here last year and throughout a remarkably successful season of road and circuit racing, the eventual makeup of the top ten on the grid is a completely open book.

In what might almost have been a re-run of this morning’s free practice session, Peter Hickman topped the timesheets in the afternoon qualifying by more than a second from Michael Rutter, and upped the stakes once more.

From the moment the MGM by Bathams BMW completed its first flying lap of the 6.2km Guia Circuit, Hickman went to the top of the leaderboard and stayed there until the chequered flag dropped, with a final lap time of 2:25.10 that was more or less untouchable.

At one point his margin over the rest of the field was well over two seconds, but once again Michael Rutter produced a late flyer to put the MGM by Bathams Honda RC213V into second place - but still 1.7 seconds adrift of the flying Hickman.

Rutter, though, is not Hickman’s only challenger for tomorrow’s second qualifying session and Saturday’s Grand Prix. Third spot on the overnight leaderboard is occupied by John McGuinness on the first of the two Tak Chun Group by PBM Ducatis. He set a time of 2.27.18 to be 0.348 of a second behind Rutter, and 0.507 ahead of his team-mate David Johnson, and a busy racetrack might be the only reason the Australian is behind McGuinness instead of in front of him as he was on the morning’s timesheets.

Horst Saiger was again fifth fastest on the Saiger Racing Yamaha and then comes Derek Sheils, up from 15th this morning on the Burrows Racing Suzuki, Lee Johnston on the Ashcourt Racing BMW and Davey Todd, bringing the MGM by Penz13 BMW into 8th place, a notable improvement on 19th in the morning practice session.

With Didier Grams showing well in 9th on the G&G Motorsport BMW, honourable mentions once again go to Erno Kostamo (MGM by Penz13 BMW) and Rob Hodson (JGH Racing BMW), 10th and 11th respectively, doing a good job of maintaining position in a field where everyone around them has upped their game and made it harder to stay where they were during the opening session of the weekend.