The 51st Macau Grand Prix burst into life on Thursday morning in south-west China.

Second-year rookie Glenn Irwin of Northern Ireland and eight-time winner Michael Rutter rode shoulder to shoulder in the initial practice when Irwin ended up 1.430sec quicker after the 15-lap session.

Dan Kneen was fifth quickest and fellow Manxman Conor Cummins eighth.

Later the same day, BSB regular Irwin again topped the first of two qualifying sessions on the Paul Bird Motorsport Ducati with a quickest lap of 2min 24.3sec for the 3.8-mile Armco-lined course.

Rutter was again second, 1.467s down on the SMT/Bathams BMW (despite only completing a third of the session), followed by team-mate Peter Hickman and Cummins on the Padgett’s Motorcycles Honda Fireblade, the bike he rode in this year’s Ulster Grand Prix.

Martin Jessopp, Derek Sheils, Austrian Horst Aiger, Australian Dave Johnson, Lincolnshire’s Gary Johnson and Londoner Danny Webb rounded out the top-10, with Dan Kneen 16th quickest on the Penz13.com BMW.

There was further qualifying early Friday, with the 12-lap race on Saturday morning at 7.40 GMT.