Michael Rutter is well placed to challenge for a record-eighth Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix victory after securing pole position. The SMT Racing rider was comfortably quicker than everybody else in Qualifying 1 and although the gap was closed in the second session, no-one could stop him claiming an eighth pole at Macau.
The biggest challenge to Rutter came from his SMT Racing teammate John McGuinness, winner here in 2001, who put in a 2:27.545s lap but Rutter managed to find almost a second on his Q1 best to edge him out by two tenths. Martin Jessopp was demoted to third in the second session although he did hold off Gary Johnson who knocked three seconds off his previous best.
Conor Cummins will start fifth ahead of Horst Saiger with Simon Andrews the leading BMW on the grid in seventh. James Storrar is eighth ahead of the Isle of Man’s Dan Kneen while James Hillier will complete the top ten when the race starts tomorrow.
The 46th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix had been scheduled to take place on Saturday but the weather refused to co-operate. Rain on Friday morning had already pushed the final qualifying session back leaving no time for the race to take place, forcing a postponement until Sunday.
 Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix – 46th Edition – Second Qualifying Classification |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 |  Michael Rutter |
Honda | SMT Racing | 2:27.545 |
| 2 | John McGuinness |
Honda | SMT Racing | +0.218 |
| 3 | Martin Jessopp |
Ducati | Riders Motorcycles.com | +1.742 |
| 4 | Gary Johnson |
Honda | Quattro Plant Motorsports | +1.952 |
| 5 |  Conor Cummins |
Suzuki | Tyco Suzuki | +2.530 |
| 6 |  Horst Saiger |
Kawasaki | Saiger-Racing.com | +2.658 |
| 7 | Simon Andrews |
BMW | Ice Valley by Motorsave Trade | +2.711 |
| 8 | James Storrar |
BMW | DMR | +3.306 |
| 9 | Dan Kneen |
Suzuki | Marks Bloom Racing | +4.135 |
| 10 | James Hillier |
Kawasaki | Bournemouth Kawasaki Racing | +4.242 |
| 11 |  Didier Grams |
BMW | German Team Heidger | +4.305 |
| 12 | James McBride |
BMW | DMR | +4.857 |
| 13 | Riko Penzkofer |
BMW | Penz 13 | +6.005 |
| 14 | Steve Mercer |
Honda | T & R Motorsport | +6.659 |
| 15 |  Branko Srdanov |
BMW | Ice Valley by Motorsave Trade | +7.124 |
| 16 |  Mark Miller |
Aprilia | Splitlath Redmond | +7.572 |
| 17 |  David Johnson |
Aprilia | Splitlath Redmond | +7.724 |
| 18 | Stephen Thompson |
BMW | T & R Motorsport | +8.857 |
| 19 |  Steve Heneghan |
Kawasaki | Quattro Plant Motorsports | +10.485 |
| 20 |  Rafael Paschoalin |
BMW | TT Brazilian Team | +12.753 |
| 21 | Davy Morgan |
Suzuki | CSC Racing | +13.593 |
| Current Maximum Qualifying Time: 2:42.299 (+14.754) | ||||
| 22 |  Yoshinari Matsushita |
BMW | Penz 13 | +14.779 |
| 23 |  Nuno Caetano |
Suzuki | KS Team Of Portugal | +15.099 |
| 24 | Brandon Cretu |
Honda | Hel Performance | +15.402 |
| 25 | Joao Fernandes |
BMW | Penz 13 | +17.654 |
| 26 | Fernando Costa |
Ducati | Pon Pone Squadra | +19.682 |
| 27 | Sou Sio Hong |
Honda | Sou Sio Hong | +24.729 |
| 28 | Jamie Hamilton |
Kawasaki | RPM Performance | +48.780 |
