Peter Hickman has taken his first Macau GP victory this morning in the former Portugese colony, giving the Briggs BMW team their first roads win before he switches to Kawasaki power for 2016 as he crossed the line some 6.267s ahead of poleman Martin Jessopp with veteran Michael Rutter bagging the final podium spot.

Lincolnshire’s Hickman took the lead from Jessopp with four laps to go in only his second visit to the race, sliding past the fellow BMW into Lisboa and then promptly cleared off with scorching pace, lapping more than a second quicker to pull a gap that Jessopp could do nothing about but the Riders of Bridgwater man still finished more than nine seconds quicker than Rutter, who completed a BMW rostrum lock-out.

Rutter got the jump away from the lights and beat Jessopp into the first corner, but Jessopp made short work of taking the lead and Hickman followed him past the Penz13.com BMW man with the pair immediately making their intentions felt as they gapped the experienced Black Country rider.

It was Jessopp who had the initial pace using a softer-compund tyre and he worked out a 2.3s lead over Hickman in only two laps while Rutter, Gary Johnson, Ian Hutchinson and the Honda pairing of John McGuinness and Conor Cummins competed for the final podium spot. Hickman set the fastest lap of the race on lap four - a 2’24.940 - as he started to reel in Jessopp while Hutchinson passed team-mate Rutter for third spot.

Jessopp’s gap was down to 1.246 with seven laps to go as Johnson staked his claim for a rostrum, passing Hutchinson into Lisboa on the brakes while SMT Yamaha’s Stuart Easton managed to claw his way past both Hondas before he ran on at Lisboa and then pitted.

Hickman whittled down Jessopp’s lead to 0.772 with six laps left and then 0.415 a lap later and with four left, he took the lead and never looked back, opening a 0.875s gap in one lap. Johnson and Rutter both got past Hutchinson at the same time while McGuinness found some pace in the later stages and had a sniff of third as Rutter and Johnson started to hold each other up.

Rutter just had the better of his younger stablemate while Hutchinson ran out of tyres and had to settle for sixth. McGuinness rode around the outside of Johnson to take fourth place while Cummins ended in seventh. Horst Saiger took eighth, Lee Johnston ninth and David Johnson, who had all manner of technical woes over the weekend, completed the top ten.

Dan Cooper, Jimmy Storrar, Mark Miller, Steve Heneghan and AJ Venter rounded out the top scorers.

Sun City Macau Grand Prix - conditions dry

1 60 Peter Hickman GBR BMW 2:24.940 12 —12 laps— 152.01
2 40 Martin Jessopp GBR BMW 2:25.271 12 6.267 151.66
3 7 Michael Rutter GBR BMW Motorrad 2:26.662 12 15.600 150.22
4 4 John McGuinness GBR Honda 2:27.169 12 17.711 149.71
5 5 Gary Johnson GBR BMW Motorrad 2:26.804 12 18.807 150.08
6 9 Ian Hutchinson GBR Kawasaki 2:27.038 12 19.279 149.84
7 22 Conor Cummins IOM Honda 2:27.267 12 19.990 149.61
8 3 Horst Saiger LIE Kawasaki 2:26.899 12 28.280 149.98
9 13 Lee Johnston GBR BMW 2:29.624 12 49.604 147.25
10 16 David Johnson AUS BMW 2:29.242 12 53.864 147.63
11 20 Dan Cooper GBR Honda 2:29.735 12 55.940 147.14
12 15 Jimmy Storrar GBR Kawasaki 2:29.957 12 1:02.717 146.92
13 10 Mark Miller USA EBR 2:31.224 12 1:05.208 145.69
14 54 Steve Heneghan IRL Yamaha 2:31.301 12 1:23.187 145.62
15 39 Allann-Jon Venter RSA Honda 2:32.742 12 1:25.671 144.24
16 111 Brian McCormack IRL TAG Honda 2:31.681 12 1:28.012 145.25
17 62 Sam West GBR Kawasaki 2:31.463 12 1:28.171 145.46
18 6 Ivan Lintin GBR Kawasaki 2:33.190 12 1:33.991 143.82
19 34 Ben Wylie GBR Bimota 2:33.088 12 1:34.615 143.92
20 14 Andre Pires POR Yamaha 2:33.526 12 1:45.114 143.51
21 24 James McBride GBR Kawasaki 2:33.765 12 1:47.634 143.28
22 11 Paul Shoesmith GBR BMW 2:35.402 12 2:03.516 141.77
23 88 Brandon Cretu USA Bimota 2:38.907 11 —11 laps— 138.65
24 1 Stuart Easton GBR Yamaha 2:27.087 7 —7 laps— 149.79
25 48 Herve Gantner SUI BMW Motorrad 2:34.279 4 —4 laps— 142.81
26 31 Dan Kruger CAN BMW Motorrad 2:39.657 4 52.523 138.00
27 71 Davy Morgan GBR Honda 2:33.344 4 6:08.889 143.68
28 26 Didier Grams GER W&G BMW 2:31.227 2 —2 laps— 145.69