Hamilton: Crashing out at Macau was beyond my control

Riding the Wilson Craig Honda superbike, Hamilton was well on the pace in qualifying, lying tenth-fastest before Peter Hickman crashed out of the opening qualifying session on his Ice Valley BMW on the final lap.

Hamilton who was just behind Hickman, also slid off on the fluid from Hickman’s radiator and that was the premature end to his race after mangling the front forks and yokes of his machine.

“The radiator was leaking water and I slid off into a wall on the top section,” Hickman explained afterwards.

“I’m gutted,” Hamilton admitted. “I had really good pace in qualifying before this happened but it was all out of my control.”

Although he did not race, Hamilton did pick up the microphone to do a bit of commentating for broadcaster, BT Sport.

It was Paul Bird Motorsport rider Stuart Easton who defied a three-year absence to take victory in the Macau race. Starting from pole, after edging out Michael Rutter by half a second, the 30-year-old comfortably took the win.