SMT Honda's Michael Rutter dominated this year's late running of the Macau Grand Prix, leading from the first lap to the tenth and fending off a mid-race charge from Martin Jessopp to make it a record-breaking eight wins in the Portugese colony.

Poor weather and bad light meant the race was held over from yesterday but none of that affected the British Superbike veteran who passed Quattro Honda's Gary Johnson for the lead in the opening third of the lap and promptly cleared off.

No-one else was able to match the Midlander's pace early on, enabling him to pull a 1.6s gap by the end of lap two while Johnson, John McGuinness and the still-injured Simon Andrews scrapped it out for the podium spots.

Jessopp, on the Riders Ducati, didn't get the best of starts and dropped back to sixth place before getting the hammer down to try and catch the pack dicing for second place.

As Rutter did his disappearing act, Ice Valley BMW's Simon Andrews found a way past his Honda Legends team-mate McGuinness on lap three and then tried a move on Johnson into R-Bend but went in too hot and backed out of the throttle, allowing Johnson back past and Jessopp to draft past on the brakes into Reservoir at the start of lap four.

Jessopp then powered past the Fireblade of Johnson on the runout of the Melco hairpin and into second. Rutter had pulled out a 3.6s lead at half-distance but Jessopp chopped it back to 2.6s by the start of lap six.

Rutter's pitboard showed that his 2011 BSB team-mate was catching him and he upped the pace. Andrews had done a number on Johnson to take the final podium slot and set about trying to catch Jessopp but the gap was too much.

TT legend John McGuinness was also trying to find a way past Johnson and tried a pass at Lisboa but his was in too fast and ran straight on, which cost the Morecambe man a possible fourth place.

Back at the front, Rutter managed the gap to cross the line 4.9s ahead of Jessopp in a carbon copy of last year's result. Andrews took his debut Macau podium in third and that will do his brain the world of good.

Johnson took fourth place with Horst Saiger a creditable fifth. Conor Cummins put his Tyco Suzuki in sixth ahead of McGuinness, Jimmy Storrar, Dan Kneen and James Hillier. Steve Mercer was 11th, James McBride 12th, David Johnson 16th, Steve Heneghan 18th, Davy Morgan 19th and Jamie Hamilton 20th.

2012 Macau Grand Prix - conditions dry

1 1 Michael RUTTER GBR SMT Racing 24:48.918 10 147.97 2:27.301

2 40 Martin JESSOPP GBR Riders Motorcycles.com 24:53.836 10 4.918 147.48 2:27.249

3 17 Simon ANDREWS GBR Ice Valley by Motorsave Trade 25:00.206 10 11.288 146.86 2:28.174

4 5 Gary JOHNSON GBR Quattro Plant Motorsports 25:05.153 10 16.235 146.37 2:29.535

5 8 Horst SAIGER AUT Saiger-Racing.com 25:06.328 10 17.410 146.26 2:28.751

6 4 Conor CUMMINS IOM Tyco Suzuki 25:08.077 10 19.159 146.09 2:29.843

7 2 John MCGUINNESS GBR SMT Racing 25:16.714 10 27.796 145.26 2:28.205

8 15 James STORRAR GBR DMR 25:22.398 10 33.480 144.71 2:30.349

9 55 Dan KNEEN IOM Marks Bloom Racing 25:26.802 10 37.884 144.30 2:31.303

10 37 James HILLIER GBR Bournemouth Kawasaki Racing 25:31.903 10 42.985 143.82 2:31.365

11 12 Steve MERCER GBR T + R Motorsport 25:33.521 10 44.603 143.66 2:32.181

12 9 James MCBRIDE GBR DMR 25:43.858 10 54.940 142.70 2:32.908

13 66 Branko SRDANOV NED Ice Valley by Motorsave Trade 25:45.713 10 56.795 142.53 2:32.977

14 26 Didier GRAMS GER German Team - Heidger - M/Sport25:48.419 10 59.501 142.28 2:32.301

15 10 Mark MILLER USA Splitlath Redmond 26:06.570 10 1:17.652 140.63 2:34.441

16 20 David JOHNSON AUS Splitlath Redmond 26:13.591 10 1:24.673 140.01 2:35.622

17 13 Riko PENZKOFER GER Penz 13 26:20.980 10 1:32.062 139.35 2:36.108

18 54 Steve HENEGHAN IRL Quattro Plant Motorsports 26:23.999 10 1:35.081 139.09 2:36.126

19 71 Davy MORGAN GBR CSC Racing 26:28.107 10 1:39.189 138.73 2:35.605

20 44 Jamie HAMILTON GBR RPM Performance 26:28.231 10 1:39.313 138.72 2:36.426

21 74 Yoshinari MATSUSHITA JPN Penz 13 26:37.439 10 1:48.521 137.92 2:37.934

22 47 Brandon CRETU USA Hel Performance 28:31.434 10 3:42.516 128.73 2:41.893

23 32 Joao FERNANDES MAC Penz 13 26:01.881 9 1 LAP 126.95 2:46.553

NOT CLASSIFIED

113 Rafael PASCHOALIN BRA TT Brazilian Team 13:45.685 5 D.N.F. 133.41 2:38.631