Davey Todd seals pole for Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix as Matt Stevenson escapes serious injury in crash

The FHO Racing BMW rider sealed the top spot ahead of Finland’s Erno Kostamo, with Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) slotting into third ahead of record nine-time winner Michael Rutter.

England’s Matt Stevenson (Dafabet Racing Kawasaki) was involved in a red-flag incident in qualifying at Police corner but his team later confirmed that he had escaped with a back injury and did not require any surgery.

After free practice was called off on both Thursday and Friday because of inclement weather and a lack of time after a crash-hit qualifying session for the FIA Formula Regional cars respectively, the motorcycle riders finally completed their first laps of the 2024 event on Saturday morning.

However, the planned one-hour free practice was halted after approximately 12 minutes as rain began to fall around the 3.8-mile street course.

A delay ensued, with riders including Rutter, Hickman and Ulsterman Paul Jordan going on an inspection lap in the course car to assess the conditions.

Eventually, free practice recommenced at 8:55am local time for a reduced 20-minute session, with conditions still far from ideal.

There was a further stoppage just as qualifying was about to begin when 2022 race winner Kostamo’s Penz13 BMW machine developed an issue and dropped oil around the course.

After another delay, qualifying got underway with Todd and Rutter setting the early pace as Hickman – seeking a fifth Macau GP success this year – climbed up to third.

Qualifying was then red-flagged when Stevenson crashed with 18 minutes of the session to go, with Rutter holding the top spot from Todd, Hickman and Kostamo.

The incident was cleared and qualifying got back underway once more, with Todd moving into provisional pole with 13 minutes left from Kostamo, Rutter and Hickman.

Kostamo recorded the fastest lap to take over at the top from Todd with eight minutes on the clock, lapping in 2:25.8, with Rutter in third ahead of Hickman.

Todd, though, wasn’t finished and upped the ante with a lap in 2:25.5 with five minutes left.

There was no change at the top of the order as Todd wrapped up pole from Kostamo by 0.257s, although Hickman squeezed out Rutter for third with his final lap, just under six tenths slower than Todd’s benchmark.

Wigan’s Rob Hodson slotted into fifth on the SMT Honda behind Rutter with Magherafelt man Jordan completing the top six on the Jackson Racing Honda.

Jordan’s team-mate Julian Trummer was seventh fastest ahead of Manxman Michael Evans (Dafabet Racing Kawasaki), Craig Neve (FHO Racing BMW) and Belgian Laurent Hoffmann (Hoffman by MRP BMW).

The rescheduled 12-lap motorcycle race, moved from Saturday to Sunday, is scheduled to take place at 8am (00:00 GMT) following a 20-minute warm-up.