The start of the 2014 Macau Grand Prix.

MARTIN Jessopp has taken his maiden pole position for Saturday’s 49th Edition Macau Grand Prix motorcycle raceby over one second.

Riders BMW’s Jessopp put in a succession of hot laps with the fastest one being a sub 2:25 lap which no other riders were able to match. Macau veteran Michael Rutter put in a lap 1.137s slowed than Jessopp to take second place on the grid for Saturday’s race.

Jessopp, on the BMW S1000RR, was just short of beating Stuart Easton’s lap record which was set back in 2010. The 30-year-old’s first lap in Q2 was straight under the 2:28 mark and just two seconds shy of being under the 2:27 mark on his second lap of the day. 

Shortly after Jessopp was already lapping at 2:25.371 whilst Rutter’s fastest was two seconds slower. With only a quarter of an hour left of the session, Jessopp finished a special lap of 2:24.802 which gave him pole position.

There is, however, potential for Jessopp to break Easton’s lap record in the race as the Yeovil rider was slowed up by Horst Saiger in sector two after setting the quickest sector one time. 

Rutter was battling with Penz13.com BMW team-mate Gary Johnson with lap times. The Lincolnshire rider put in a 2:26.879 lap, but with only quarter of an hour left and as pressure mounted from Jessopp, Johnson was pushed back to third and then fourth as Rutter re-claimed second and Briggs BMW’s Peter Hickman put himself into third with a 2:26.700 lap with only nine minutes remaining. 

As Johnson’s grid places were slipping away slowly, 2013 Macau Grand Prix winner Ian Hutchinson shoved him down again to fifth as he finished the second qualifying session less than a second slower than Hickman. 

Q1’s top man John McGuinness was forced to settle for sixth on-board his Honda Racing CBR1000RR Fireblade whilst his team-mate Conor Cummins finished seventh. 

Austria’s Saiger finished eighth with a 2:27.953 lap whilst 2014’s Macau Grand Prix winner Easton put in a late fast lap to finish the session in ninth. Lee Johnston rounded out the top ten. 

The session was red-flagged early on as Tom McHale crashed hard at Mandarin corner. McHale reportedly has fractures and has been taken to hospital, but is conscious and talking.