Macau Grand Prix: Peter Hickman dominates restarted race for fourth victory as Davey Todd claims second for Ulster team Burrows Racing

Hickman dominated the race to clinch a home win for team owner Faye Ho by over 28 seconds from Davey Todd, who sealed the runner-up spot for Northern Ireland’s Burrows Engineering/RK Racing team on a BMW M1000RR.

The race was red-flagged on the opening lap when Waterford’s Brian McCormack crashed out followed by Nadieh Schoots, who went down and hit the Irishman’s BMW. Both were taken to hospital and were reported to be ‘comfortable’, with McCormack later released.

In dramatic scenes moments before the race began, Todd’s machine was pulled off the front row with a problem, but the English rider was granted a second opportunity when the race was re-run over a full 12-lap distance following a delay of around one hour as oil was cleaned from the course after the earlier red flag incident.

David Datzer – last year’s runner-up – rounded out the podium spots on the MTP Racing Zero Up BMW ahead of Guia circuit newcomer Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW).

Nine-time winner Michael Rutter, also riding for Ho’s FHO Racing BMW team – retired from the race. Rutter was lying third on the opening lap before running on at Melco Hairpin. He then pulled into the pits and ventured back out onto the course again before calling it quits.

Czech rider Kamil Holan crashed on the final lap at the last corner. He was moving after the incident but no official update has yet been provided on his condition.

Pole man Hickman seized the lead from Todd, Rutter and Erno Kostamo on the first lap, with Brookes promoted to fourth after Rutter ran into problems.

Hickman and Todd quickly broke away from Kostamo in third, who was being chased by Brookes and Datzer.

Brookes gained a position when 2022 winner Kostamo retired from the race on the Zero Up Penz 13 BMW.

Hickman was beginning to break away from Todd and soon the FHO Racing BMW rider had established a comfortable cushion of seven seconds at the half-way point in the race.

Todd had 12 seconds in hand over Datzer, who was up to third past Brookes after recovering from a poor start.

The race became a procession as Hickman disappeared into the distance, extending his advantage to 17 seconds after eight laps.

Todd was beginning to lose ground to Datzer and although the German rider was closing rapidly in the final stages, he held on by 1.8s for second place.

Hickman’s winning margin at the end was a massive 28.969s as he claimed his first win at the 3.8-mile Guia street course since 2018.

Aussie Brookes took fourth on his Macau debut, 2.3s behind Datzer, with Rob Hodson in fifth on the SMT Honda.

Lukas Maurer (Kawasaki) completed the top six ahead of Magherafelt’s Paul Jordan (Zero Up Racing Penz 13 BMW) and Dominic Herbertson (Dafabet Kawasaki).

Phil Crowe, who had qualified sixth fastest on his BMW and David Johnson (Dafabet Kawasaki) were among the retirements.

The Isle of Man’s Michael Evans (Suzuki) finished ninth on his debut ahead of Sam West (motohub.co.uk BMW), who received a 30-second penalty after his machine was outside his grid box during the race restart.