Jessopp leads way in close supertwins session

Martin Jessopp led the way in a close-fought Supertwins qualifying on the opening day of the 2016 North West 200, pipping Ivan Lintin to the top spot on his Riders Motorcycles Kawasaki.

Jessopp outpaced his Devitt RC Express Racing rival by just 0.046 to lap the Triangle circuit with an average speed of 107.348 on his Kawasaki ER-6-based racer.

Irish road racing legend Ryan Farquhar was third some 1.5 seconds behind the BSB racer ahead of James Hillier in fourth on the Quattro-Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki.

Paul Jordan set the fifth fastest time ahead of former MotoGP star Jeremy McWilliams with Peter Hickman in seventh on his supertwins debut for the Burrows Engineering squad.

Daniel Cooper took eighth place with Danny Webb and Adam McLean rounding out the top ten.