Morecambe's John McGuinness was left to rue what might have been at the annual Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix on Saturday when tyre troubles held him back from a potential podium place. Riding the IGT/sorrymate.com Honda, McGuinness had qualified in a brilliant third place, posting his best ever lap of the 3.8-mile Guia circuit, to look a good bet for the rostrum but with the race being stopped and then re-started, the grip advantage he had enjoyed disappeared and he slipped back to 6th at the end of the 9 laps. The week started in the usual steady fashion for John as he posted the 6th fastest time in the opening free practice session, the motorcycles again being the first competitors to take to the track in the four-day event and thus getting the dustiest and dirtiest track conditions. By the afternoon's first qualifying session, the F3 and Touring Cars had laid more rubber down on the track and John was able to cut his time by almost 5 seconds, a lap of 2m28.691s placing him in 5th. The second qualifying session got underway at 7.30am on Friday with both track and air temperatures hitting 21 degrees C and, as the session wore on, the times tumbled. Indeed, in the closing stages, John posted a superb lap of 2m25.955s to jump up to 3rd fastest overall which was not only good enough for the front row but also his quickest lap in 13 years of competition in the Far East venue. Saturday's race day dawned warm and dry and as the 15-lap race got underway, John tucked in behind American rider Jeremy Toye and here he stayed for the next few laps. By lap 6, he was ready to make his move but just as he was lining up a pass, the red flag came out due to a crash involving Canadian Chris Peris who, fortunately, wasn't seriously injured. A new rear tyre was fitted to the Honda but the front tyre advantage he had in the first part had now been lost and so John found himself up against it in the shortened, 9-lap race. Starting this time from fourth place on the front row, John was pushed back to 8th as the riders reached the Lisboa Bend for the first time and although he fought his way back up to 6th, he was unable to make the challenge he wanted and had to settle for this position at the chequered flag. Speaking later, John commented: "It's been another really enjoyable week here in Macau but I'm just disappointed it ended how it did. All week, we've been building up, getting quicker and quicker all the time and after the strong showing in qualifying, I felt really confident coming in to the race. We'd got a good set-up with the bike and had a good race pace and although I slipped back to 4th at the start, I felt strong sitting behind Jeremy. I was ready to make a pass on him and try and reel in the leaders but the red flag came out and that pretty much spelt the end of the race for me. We fitted a new rear tyre but didn't have one for the front and then I didn't get the grip from the rear in the re-run as I would have liked so it made it a real battle. I fought my way back up to sixth, which is still a solid result around what's a really demanding and physical circuit, and it's been great working with the team. A big thank you to Robin Croft of SMT for giving me the opportunity and also to Alec and Warren who gave me great support and who worked really hard throughout." Ends