Q&A: Ian Hutchinson.

Crash.net:
How is the collar bone coming along?

Ian Hutchinson:
It's alright, I've had plate put in it and then went out to Macau. It was like having a tooth ache niggle, it just ached a little bit. Never really caused me any problem so hopefully another week as that will be five weeks into it and it should be well recovered.

Crash.net:
What actually happened?

IH:
We went down to Darley Moor on the Stobart bikes just for a bit of a shake down. Basically get the handle bars and foot pegs and just little bits and bobs in the right place so that the bikes felt like ours when we leave pit lane in Macau. It was a little bit too cold really and not an idea circuit to be testing, but I just flicked through the chicane and high sided it.

Crash.net:
You had a tough time in Macau - what happened there?

IH:
It was really unusual for the Stobart team but we had a miss-fire that dragged on for a couple of sessions and we never really got to the bottom of it. I ended up qualifying on John's bike and just did a couple of laps at the end of the session to get myself on the grid. I started from fifth and the problem arose again in the race. I was really disappointed, I've gone through a lot of agro over the last couple of weeks trying to get fit.

I went through an operation, had the plate fitted, went over to the Isle of Man for a week and sat in the hyperbaric chamber for two and a half hours every day. I've done everything possible to be fit for Macau, and I wanted to go out there and give it one hundred percent. I just couldn't let go when I was there, I wanted to be out there but it was obviously not meant to be and there was nothing I could do about it.

Crash.net:
Did Guy Martin's crash in Macau unnerve you?

IH:
It was a real strange time to happen for me because it was the session that I'd been sat out of. Just as I was about to go out on John's bike under quite a bit of pressure to do one quick lap on a bike that I had never ridden and I looked up at the TV screen in the garage and Guy was in the barrier.

Two things for me was it made me think it is not really worth it and also if he was still in the middle of the track and his bike was there, then I was not even going to be on the grid. Luckily he was alright and they got him away and his bike cleared up and I managed to get a lap. I kept my head tied on and didn't do anything stupid. It is not the place to be coming in desperately looking at timing screens and going berserk out there. It is just a bit of a holiday trip, it is not going to change anything in your career whether you win it or you don't.