Donald eighth in Macau GP

Twenty-seven-year-old Scot Stuart Easton won his third successive Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix on November 20, with Australians Cameron Donald and David Johnson eighth and 15th respectively.

Easton (Kawasaki) had to do it the hard way on the famous 6.120km street circuit, fending off a strong challenge from the King of Macau, Michael Rutter (Ducati). Rutter, fastest in qualifying, chased his young rival in the first part of the race until it was red flagged after six laps following a crash involving Canadian Chris Peris, who escaped with minor injuries.

Then, in the restart, Easton made another attempt to open up a gap over his older rival and at one stage, had got a lead of almost two seconds, but Rutter, the 38-year-old British star, closed the gap again and threatened to catch and pass the Kawasaki man.

Easton responded by quickening his pace, setting a new lap record of 2:23.616 on the seventh of the nine-lap race, breaking Rutter’s spirit.

At the chequered flag Easton’s winning margin was almost 11 seconds over Rutter, with American Jeremy Toye (BMW) grabbed a dramatic third place within sight of the finishing line after Britain’s Simon Andrews (Kawasaki) had struck mechanical problems on the final lap.

“When I saw that Rutter had caught me, I was devastated after trying so hard to break free. I thought if he could catch me after all that, there was no way I could beat him,” said Easton.

“But I tried again and managed to open a gap once more. I tried to catch Stuart mid-way through the race but then I hit the trackside Armco and said to myself, ‘once is enough’.”

Easton had won the last two Macau GPs on a Honda.

Gary Johnson (Suzuki), another British rider, was fifth home in the 44th running of the motorcycle GP in the Chinese administrative area, while Donald (Suzuki) was one of 10 riders who finished within a minute of the winner.

And we've just heard that Donald will now part ways with his Northern Ireland-based Relentless Suzuki team, after recently agreeing to another contract for 2011.

In the event's premier F3 race -- Macau is the only street circuit in the world which hosts car and motorcycle events -- Edoardo Mortara secured his place in the history books on Sunday when he became the first man to win the race for a second time.

Mortara fought back from third place at one point in the incident-filled 15-lap event to head home team-mate Laurens Vanthoor, with Valtteri Bottas taking third.