Macau Grand Prix qualifying times - McGuinness top

Raceline photography
By blue2bikes
November 20 2004

The fastest man over the Isle of Man TT course grabbed a hold of pole position at the Macau Grand Prix circuit earlier today, taking himself to the top slot for the 38th round of this far east race to be run tomorrow.

After a one hour timed session, six times TT winner John McGuinness grabbed the pole position and, chasing his second Macau victory, never looked back as others tried to beat his time.

John, who is a master at road racing, certainly shone, as did his team-mate Stuart Easton, who surprised everyone by taking up the second position on the grid. Stuart was given a last minute entry for this race, to run alongside John, and has certainly made the most of it to end up just 1.32 seconds slower than John.

Their MonsterMob boss, Paul Bird, said that the whole team was full of emotion, seeing that it was the last time the MonsterMob team would be running Ducatis (as pictured above) - “It would be magnificient if we could get the race win tomorrow.”

The event favourite, Michael Rutter, could only manage fourth position after struggling with tyres in the morning’s cool temperatures. Looking for his third win in succession, and fifth overall title, Mike is still confident of winning, especially with the later afternoon starting time for the 15 lap race, which will be more in his favour.

This is going to be one of the best Macau Grands Prix ever, and who would be so bold as to pick a winner? I know Mike will be putting himself right up there on top of the podium.

Here are the top ten for the start:
1 John McGuinness, 2 min 28.663 secs
2 Stuart Easton, 2 min 29.986 secs
3 Thomas Hinterreiter, 2 min 30.663 secs
4 Michael Rutter, 2 min 30.906 secs
5 Gus Scott, 2 min 31.122 secs
6 Marcel Kellenberger, 2 min 32.126 secs
7 Roger Bennett, 2 min 32.64 secs
8 Josh Hayes, 2 min 33.206 secs
9 Markus Barth, 2 min 33.262 secs
10 Geoff May, 2 min 33.32 secs.