JOHN McGuinness claimed his fifth successive podium at Saturday's Macau Grand Prix although the Morecambe rider had to once again settle for second behind Michael Rutter.

Having claimed the title back in 2001, hopes were high going into the race but Rutter has proved to be the master of the 3.8-mile circuit and, for the fourth year on the trot, McGuinness finished as runner up to the Midlands rider.

Nevertheless, McGuinness was more than satisfied with another podium position for the Paul Bird Motorsport team, this time aboard the Stobart Honda machine.

Having ridden the bike back in August at the Ulster GP, McGuinness was soon up to speed on the Honda Fireblade and found himself in third place after the first qualifying session on Thursday.

This would prove to be the way in which the grid would line up as Friday's second qualifying session was delayed by earlier problems in the Touring Car session.

The practice was held as an untimed session over 30 minutes so only the times from Thursday counted.

It proved to be a relatively uneventful race for 30-year old McGuinness and he immediately slotted into second place on the first lap with Rutter grabbing the lead. Try as he might, McGuinness was unable to match the pace of his fellow Honda rider and after four laps Rutter was over two seconds clear and gradually pulling away.

Lapping consistently, McGuinness was a long way clear of the third place battle between Les Shand and Ian Lougher and wisely settled for second place.

At the end of the 15 laps, he crossed the line in the runner-up spot for his sixth Macau GP podium finish since he first competed there in 1998, 16 seconds adrift of Rutter but 11 seconds clear of Shand.

Speaking after the race, a satisfied McGuinness smiled: "I did the best that I could on the day so overall I'm pleased with another second place finish.

"Macau is a funny old place and it's a long way from home should anything go wrong so it's always good to get a solid result at the end of the weekend. I got a good start and tried to hang on to Michael as best as I could but he was just too strong pulled away."

"I couldn't stay with him but I got into a good rhythm, putting in 15 consistent laps and I thoroughly enjoyed the race. Birdy gave me a good bike and I'm happy, he's happy - overall, everyone's happy."

McGuinness will now enjoy the winter break before joining up with his new HM Plant Honda team in the New Year for an intensive pre-season testing schedule.