Milwaukee Yamaha 's Ian Hutchinson has shocked the Macau Grand Prix paddock by snatching pole position away from reigning champion Michael Rutter by 0.057s on his penultimate lap of the final qualifying session as the pair lapped together.
SMT's Rutter came up to the back of the Bingley man with only seven minutes of the session left and it seemed to spur on the multiple Isle of Man TT winner as he suddenly got the hammer down and Rutter was forced to chase him as hanging back and waiting for a clear track would have seen him run out of time.
Hutchinson jumped from fourth on the timesheets to first with a lap of 2'25.568, which was enough to topple Rutter's time from yesterday and set pole position. Not bad for a man who rode a Superbike for the first time in 18 months at Donington Park a couple of weeks ago.
Rutter himself also went under his time from yesterday but lost out by half a tenth with a 2'25.625. Honda TT Legend rider John McGuinness couldn't match his time from yesterday, but neither could anyone else and it was enough to keep him on the front row of the grid.
Martin Jessopp starts from the top of row two tomorrow on the Riders BMW also with his time from yesterday while Horst Saiger and Gary Johnson make up the rest of row two. Jimmy Storrar, Jeremy Toye, Didier Grams and Manxman Dan Kneen round out the top ten.
