Michael Rutter (SMT Racing Honda) once again tamed the challenging Guia Circuit today by seizing provisional pole position for Saturday’s race with a scorching lap of 2:25.975 seconds, more than 1.5 seconds faster than his closest challenger, John McGuinness (Honda TT Legends).

Rutter shot to the top of the time sheets at the start of the 45-minute first qualifying session and did not relinquish his position as first Ian Hutchinson (Milwaukee Yamaha), then Martin Jessopp (Riders Motorcycles BMW), and finally rival McGuinness tried to catch the eight-time Macau winner.

In the closing minutes, Rutter was again on fire setting two fastest sector times but was unable to complete the flying lap when he hit traffic in the final run to the line. He had done more than enough though to deliver the message to his rivals that he is going to be a hard man to beat this weekend.

McGuinness had been running down the order in eighth for much of the session, before putting in two electrifying laps in the closing minutes, beating Jessopp’s best lap by just 0.064 of a second. Hutchinson, meanwhile, dropped down the order to fourth fastest by the flag ahead of James Storrar (DMR Racing BMW).

American Jeremy Toye (Penz13.Com BMW Racing Team) was the fastest of the non-British riders, making an impressive start to his ninth visit to Macau. Roman Stamm (Team Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki) continued to make an impression on his Macau and road racing debut as the fastest of the newcomers.

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