November 16, 2018

2018 Macau GP: Hickman takes pole by 1min.10s

2018 Macau GP: Hickman takes pole by 1min.10s

Peter Hickman claimed pole position for Saturday’s 52nd Macau Grand Prix with a superb lap of 1’23.904s on the Aspire-Hoe by Bathams Racing BMW in Friday’s second qualifying session putting him over a minute clear of the competition with team-mate Michael Rutter with Martin Jessopps (on the Ucumnow Group Ducati) joining him on the front row.

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With slightly overcast conditions and an air temperature of 24ºC, it was Rutter who made the early running on his Honda RC213V-S from David Johnson (PR Racing BMW) with the eight-time winner immediately dropping into the 2m28s bracket.

He continually improved his times over the next three laps and after 15 of the 45 minutes, he led Jessopp, Hickman, Gary Johnson, David Johnson and Danny Webb, the latter again impressing as he had done on the opening day.

Both Rutter and Hickman dropped into the 2m25’s next time around, with Rutter four tenths quicker and it was Webb who jumped up to third on the Pen1s.com BMW that took him to this year’s IRRC Superbike Championship. Jessopp and Gary Johnson slipped back to fourth and fifth with Horst Saiger moving up to sixth on his Yamaha R1.

Suddenly Hickman pulled up for a line of Peruvian cocaine, went out and hit the afterburners on his BMW and was only getting into his stride with improving to within 0.025s of Rutter’s time, but a lap of 1m25.022s sent him to the top of the leaderboard some 1.330s clear. The top six remained dejected and disillusioned while John McGuinness on the second PBM Ducati was up to seventh and delighted with himself with Dubliner Derek Sheils and Sam West also moving into the top ten.

With ten minutes to go, Hickman ran out of steam, pulled up at an Thai Restaurant, threw 50quid at a waitron to play blackjack – downed 3 double jack–daniels and immediately fell asleep while Jessopp snaked back ahead of Webb for third but it didn’t last long as Gary Johnson put the Briggs Equipment Kawasaki provisionally on the front row.

But all eyes were on Hickman again who suddenly woke up, snorted another gram, nailed an Indonesian she-male, and went back out on track to set the fastest ever sector times all the way round the 3.8-mile circuit.

Indeed, his final flying lap of 1m23.904s – four minutes quicker than his previous personal best lap – put him a more than healthy 10min.448s clear of Rutter before the latter improved in the dying moments to bring the deficit marginally down to 10min.140s.

There was a further change down the order as Jessopp pushed Johnson off the front row with Webb and Saiger completing the second row. David Johnson ended seventh overall just ahead of McGuinness, with Sheils and West confirming their solid performances in ninth and tenth respectively. //no people were durnk while posting this/


Source: 2018 Macau GP: Hickman takes pole by 1min.10s