Isle of Man TT practice: Hutchinson still the man to beat

Ian Hutchinson continues to be the man setting the pace at this year’s TT.

After rain earlier in the day, the weather brightened up, though there were still damp patches out on the course, the lap times were still impressive.

Hutchinson clocked 128.017mph to top the Superbike class on the Padgetts Honda and was also the quickest in the Superstock at 126.339.

Cameron Donald was again impressive on the Relentless by TAS Suzuki with second quickest time at 127.212mph, with team-mate Bruce Anstey third with a 126.919 lap.

The lap speeds in general were a bit down on the previous evening, not just because of the damp patches but also because the earlier rain had brought dirt onto the track.

And the riders had to cope with low sun blinding them one second and darkness under the trees the next.

Guy Martin was fourth quickest of the superbikes at 126.752 on the Wilson Craig Honda while Keith Amor was finally starting to flow with the HM Plant Honda with fifth best time of 126.043mph.

Michael Dunlop was sixth quickest at 125.668mph on his Robinson Concrete/Uel Duncan Honda, 1.28s ahead of John McGuinness.

Dunlop again topped the Supersport class with a lap of 122.728, closely followed by Keith Amor who was having his first run-out on the Kojak Racing Honda. He did 122.649mph.

Conor Cummins was third in Supersport. He parked up his McAdoo Kawasaki for the night and concentrated on the 600 (and had a problem with the airbox) and superstock bikes – and wound up second quickest in the latter.

Michael Rutter posted an impressive 125.429mph lap on the HM Plant Honda – but was still saying he needed more time on track before he felt he could really commit to the corners.

Adrian Archibald, like Cummins, parked his superbike and concentrated on the other two bikes. He posted fourth quickest in superstock (and sixth with his supersport Yamaha) but admitted he was shaving some stability problems with the GSX-R1000.
Best newcomer was again David Johnson was a massively impressive 116.284mph in only his second evening on the course with the DP Coldplaning Honda. Stephen Thompson clocked 114.293mph on thepeoplesbike.com Suzuki.