IAN Hutchinson set the pace with a 128 mph lap in this evening’s practice session while Rick Holden was fastest in the sidecars with a lap at 111 mph.

A pleasant, dry and sunny day on the Island meant that the Monday session started with near perfect conditions all around the Mountain Course and a near full session was completed.

Cameron Donald completed his first lap at 122.068mph, the first since his practice crash at Keppel Gate last year, but Guy Martin was quickest on the opening lap at 125.007mph. Other notable first lap speeds included Hutchinson at 123.160mph, John McGuinness at 123.954mph and Conor Cummins at 122.058mph.

Michael Dunlop was the quickest on the Supersport machines at 120.199mph. Two riders out of luck though were James McCullagh and newcomer Gary May, both of whom stopped at Douglas Road Corner.

Many of the riders pulled in after their first lap, including Donald, Amor, Johnson and Dan Stewart, but Martin, Dunlop, Anstey, McGuinness and Cummins were just a few of the established runners to go straight through.

As expected, speeds increased second time around with Martin increasing to 127.056mph and McGuinness going slightly quicker at 127.090mph. Cummins and Anstey weren’t too far behind at 125.748mph and 125.655mph respectively whilst Dunlop was also impressing on the 600 at 123.960mph.

It was Hutchinson and Donald who climbed to the top of the leaderboard on their Superbikes. Hutchinson’s third lap was 126.867mph but on his fourth and final lap of the evening he put in an impressive speed of 128.302mph to jump to top of the leaderboard. Donald improved to 127.274mph with Archibald at 127.056mph and Anstey on 126.020mph. Meanwhile, Farquhar was impressing on the Superstock machine at 126.799mph whilst Ollie Linsdell completed one lap on the Moto2 Honda at 115.02mph.

David Johnson and Stephen Thompson were the best of the newcomers, the Australian lapping at a highly impressive 113.020mph. Thompson was second quickest of the first timers at 109.685mph followed by Brian McCormack at 107.122 and Tony Czyzewski at 106.617mph.

Johnson also lapped above 110mph on his 600cc machine, Brandon Cretu the second quickest here on 104.540mph.

In the F2 Sidecars, Dave Molyneux/Patrick Farrance led the field away followed by John Holden/Andy Winkle, Tim Reeves/Dipash Chauhan, Klaus Klaffenbock/Dan Sayle, Simon Neary/Paul Knapton and Conrad Harrison/Kerry Williams.

Holden was first back at 111.323mph and carried on for a second lap whilst Molyneux recorded 108.333mph before pulling straight in. However, it was Klaffenbock who was quickest at 111.324mph and he improved to 111.761mph second time around, Holden also going quicker at 111.576mph. 

Neary was also above 110mph but Reeves was out of luck stopping at Barregarrow with Greg Lambert pulling in at the Creg and Bill Currie at Appledene.

Overnight rain is forecast but conditions are expected to improve throughout Tuesday so we should be set for another fine session and with speeds already at a high level, more is expected from the leading contenders.

Provisional Times:

Poker Stars Superbike TT

1 Ian Hutchinson (Padgetts Honda) – 128.302mph

2 Cameron Donald (Relentless by TAS Suzuki) – 127.274mph

3 John McGuinness (HM Plant Honda) – 127.090mph

4 Guy Martin (Wilson Craig Honda) – 127.056mph

5 Adrian Archibald (AMA Suzuki) – 127.056mph

6 Bruce Anstey (Relentless by TAS Suzuki) – 126.020mph

Monster Energy Supersport TT 

1 Michael Dunlop (600 Street Sweep/Hardship Racing Yamaha) – 123.960mph

2 Guy Martin (600 Wilson Craig Honda) – 121.600mph

3 William Dunlop (600 CD Racing Yamaha) – 121.020mph

4 John McGuinness (600 Padgetts Honda) – 120.289mph

5 Paul Owen (600 #98 Club Yamaha) – 119.222mph

6 Ian Lougher (600 Blackhorse Kawasaki) – 118.799mph

Royal London 360? Superstock TT

1 Ryan Farquhar (1000 KMR Kawasaki) – 126.799mph

2 Michael Dunlop (1000 Hunts Motorcycles/Marlow Construction Honda) – 124.810mph

3 Guy Martin (1000 Wilson Craig Honda) – 124.582mph

4 John McGuinness (1000 Padgetts Honda) – 124.523mph

5 Ian Hutchinson (1000 Padgetts Honda) – 123.459mph

6 Conor Cummins (1000 McAdoo Kawasaki) – 123.456mph

Sure Sidecar TT

1 Klaus Klaffenbock/Dan Sayle (Manx Gas Racing Honda) – 111.761mph

2 John Holden/Andy Winkle (Holden Racing/TAS Suzuki) – 111.576mph

3 Simon Neary/Paul Knapton (600 Dave Hudspeth Carpets/Nick Crowe Racing Honda) – 110.964mph