Isle of Man TT: Dunlop posts 128mph lap as practice disrupted again

Michael Dunlop posted the third fastest lap of TT practice week on Friday evening despite a house fire in Kirk Michael village causing further disruption to the week’s schedule.
 
The Honda TT Legends rider lapped at 128.52mph on his second lap of a shortened 30-minute Superbike session after the fire broke out during the preceding Formula Two sidecar session.

With the emergency services called out to attend the scene, proceedings were called to an obvious halt with a 45-minute delay subsequently following.
 
With good conditions greeting competitors, it led to further frustrations in a week that has already seen the Superbike race pushed back from it’s original 11am start on Saturday to 2pm on Sunday.

It all meant the solo riders were only able to squeeze in two laps with Dunlop the quickest on each, his opening lap being slightly slower than the second at 127.68.
 
With yellow flags being waved through Kirk Michael where water had been left on the road surface, lap speeds were somewhat down on the previous nights action whilst Guy Martin only got as far as Quarter Bridge on his Superbike before being forced to pull off the course with problems.

William Dunlop was first to complete a lap with 124.86 before being upstaged by his brother whilst Gary Johnson was the only other rider to break the 125mph barrier during the session with a lap of 125.19mph.

The yellow flags were clearly keeping speeds down with most riders around the 123mph mark including James Hillier (123.93), Cameron Donald (123.22), Dean Harrison (123.47), Steve Mercer (123.26) and John McGuinness (123.21).

As well as Dunlop, Donald improved on his second lap, to 123.90, whilst Martin was able to get back out on his Superstock bike and post a lap of 122.26.

In the earlier Sidecar session, quickest on the opening lap, and for the week, were Dave Molyneux/Patrick Farrance with a lap of 114.00mph, comfortably quicker than John Holden/Andy Winkle on 111.09 whilst Ben/Tom Birchall and Tim Reeves/Dan Sayle lapped at a more leisurely 103.77 and 102.61 respectively.

Molyneux/Farrance pulled in after their lap but Holden/Winkle continued and were one of only a handful of crews to complete the two laps due to the aforementioned fire. Their lap was also their best of the week at 112.54 with Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott and Dougie Wright/Martin Hull the only other two pairings to break the 110mph barrier.