Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness got his 2015 Macau Grand Prix campaign off to a good start in today’s opening practice as he, old rival Michael Rutter and Austrian Horst Saiger traded times at the top of the sheet but then Martin Jessopp took top spot with his last lap and was the only man to break the 2’29s barrier.
McGuinness had been sitting pretty on 2’29.021, set on his tenth lap, with a 0.121s advantage over Rutter with Saiger in third another couple of tenths back but Jessopp had other ideas and banged in a 2’28.970 to lead the Morecambe Missile, who is riding his works Honda Fireblade, by 0.051s.
Jessopp, on his BSB Riders BMW S1000RR, had been milling around the top five all session and he wasn’t the only one to stick in a last, fast gasp either. Ian Hutchinson, who won here in 2013 on the Milwaukee Yamaha, leapt into fifth place with his final effort of 2’30.434 to push Peter Hickman, on the Briggs BMW, into sixth place and the gap to Jessopp is some 1.941s.
Lee Johnston put his BMW in seventh place on a 2’31.448, just ahead of Gary Johnson, Aussie David Johnson with reigning champion Stuart Easton - having his first run out on the new R1 - in tenth place on a 2’33.116, ten seconds off his own 2010 lap record.
McGuinness’ team-mate Conor Cummins is 11th, Steve Heneghan 12th, Didier Grams 13th, Jimmy Storrar 14th and Dan ‘The Ferret’ Cooper completes the top 15.
