PBM Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton snatched pole position for this year’s Macay Grand Prix away from Michael Rutter with only a minute of the qualifying session left to run, going half a second quicker than the Milwaukee Yamaha man on his penultimate lap.

Rutter had set the pace in practice and first qualfying – which was red-flagged early doors when Michael Sweeney walked away from a massive highside – and looked set to wrap up top spot but Hawick Easton had other ideas.

The little Scotsman went out hard and fast sticking in a 1’27.491 on his fifth lap but Rutter was not far behind, responding with a 1’27.821 of his own while the rest of the field trailed in their wake. Martin Jessopp snatched third place in the opening 15 minutes only to be replaced by Gary Johnson.

Austrian Horst Saiger then barged into third place with a 1’28.920 just as Rutter began his second run but had to content with yellow flags after Roman Stamm front-flipped his Kawasaki during a trip into the barriers.

It didn’t deter Rutter, however, as the Midlander re-took top spot with a 1’26.478. Easton’s team-mate Ian Hutchinson has been under the radar all weekend but his second run put him into sixth spot as Easton himself improved in time with a 1’27.718 and was fastest in sector two.

With six minutes left, Pirtek Honda’s Lee Johnston came from nowhere to bag third place on a 2’27.096 while Rutter followed Hutchinson around on the circuit and didn’t get another clear lap.

Easton did and stormed to top spot with a 2’25.975 but he is still more than two seconds off his own lap record. That may be broken in tomorrow’s morning’s race.

Hutchinson remained fourth behind Johnston but is some 2.3s slower than Easton while Scotland’s Jimmy Storrar also found a lap to haul himself up to fifth on a 2’28.506, demoting Saiger to sixth place.

Johnson, on the Quattro Kawasaki, is seventh with Jessopp eighth, Steve Mercer ninth and Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness in tenth place, four seconds off the pace.

The top 15 is completed by Didier Grams, Dan Cooper, Stephen Thompson, Stamm and Marc Fisette. Neither Peter Hickman nor Jamie Hamilton took part following crashes in first qualifying. Hickman fell after his radiator sprung a leak and Hamilton slipped off on the same water. Neither were hurt.

2014 Macau GP qualifying practice two – conditions dry

1 5 Stuart EASTON GBR PBM by The Venetian Hotel 2:25.975 15 150.93
2 2 Michael RUTTER GBR Milwaukee Yamaha 2:26.478 16 0.503 150.41
3 69 Lee JOHNSTON GBR Pirtek Pro Bolt Honda 2:27.096 12 1.121 149.78
4 1 Ian HUTCHINSON GBR PBM by The Venetian Hotel 2:28.285 15 2.310 148.57
5 15 James STORRAR GBR DMR Racing 2:28.506 15 2.531 148.35
6 3 Horst SAIGER AUT Saiger-Racing.com 2:28.920 15 2.945 147.94
7 7 Gary JOHNSON GBR Quattro Plant/Monex Europe 2:28.952 13 2.977 147.91
8 40 Martin JESSOPP GBR Riders Motorcycles BMW 2:29.408 7 3.433 147.46
9 13 Steve MERCER GBR Penz13.com BMW Motorrad 2:29.978 17 4.003 146.90
10 4 John MCGUINNESS GBR Pirtek Pro Bolt Honda 2:29.986 13 4.011 146.89
11 26 Didier GRAMS DEU Heidger-Motorsport.de 2:30.136 15 4.161 146.74
12 20 Daniel COOPER GBR DMR Racing 2:30.741 13 4.766 146.15
13 22 Stephen THOMPSON GBR Penz13.com BMW Motorrad 2:31.015 14 5.040 145.89
14 8 Roman STAMM CHE Team Bolliger Switzerland 2:31.189 11 5.214 145.72
15 19 Marc FISSETTE BEL Heidger-Motorsport.de 2:32.430 15 6.455 144.53
16 111 Brian MCCORMACK IRL Burrows Engineering Racing 2:32.509 14 6.534 144.46 :irlflag:
17 62 Allan-Jon VENTER RSA CF32/Maco Racing Team 2:32.516 16 6.541 144.45
18 9 James MCBRIDE GBR JV Racing 2:32.872 12 6.897 144.12
19 11 Paul SHOESMITH GBR Ice Valley by Motorsave Trade 2:33.059 15 7.084 143.94
20 54 Steve HENEGHAN IRL Quattro Plant/Monex Europe 2:34.065 15 8.090 143.00 :irlflag:
21 10 Mark MILLER USA Splitlath Motorsports 2:34.138 16 8.163 142.93
22 71 Davy MORGAN GBR CMS Racing 2:35.201 14 9.226 141.95
23 88 Brandon CRETU USA Splitlath Motorsports 2:35.407 14 9.432 141.77
24 12 Sandor BITTER HUN VRS Racing 2:36.177 13 10.202 141.07
25 83 Graham ENGLISH GBR TIVA Engineering Ltd 2:36.262 14 10.287 140.99
26 18 Nuno CAETANO PRT FMP Team Portugal 2:37.563 12 11.588 139.83
27 65 Michael SWEENEY IRL Burrows Engineering Racing 2:38.530 3 12.555 138.97 :irlflag:
28 31 Robert Daniel KRUGER CAN Titanic Kawasaki by Penz13.com 2:39.948 7 13.973 137.74

Weather/Track: Cloud 19°C/Dry 21°C