TT 2023: Peter Hickman and Michael Dunlop go head-to-head in record-breaking Superbike qualifying session

Cloudless skies and bright sunshine bathed the Mountain Course once more and Hickman wound up the wick on his Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW, raising the Superbike benchmark to 133.797mph from a standing start (16m 55.181s).

It was the quickest qualifying lap ever at the TT, although his second flying lap was slightly slower at 133.553mph.

Northern Ireland’s Michael Dunlop almost matched Hickman with his second standing start lap of 133.775mph on his Hawk Racing Honda, which was only 0.162s down on his English rival.

Bradford’s Dean Harrison was third quickest on the DAO Racing Kawasaki at 132.921mph ahead of Milenco by Padgett’s Honda rider Davey Todd (131.561mph).

Josh Brookes was fourth fastest on the Monster Energy by FHO BMW at 129.833mph ahead of OMG Yamaha’s James Hillier (129.21mph) and Michael Rutter on the Batham’s Racing Honda RC213V-S (128.86mph).

Ballymoney man Dunlop led the Superstock times on his MD Racing Honda with a standing start lap of 132.728mph, 0.2s ahead of Harrison who clocked 132.7mph on his second flying lap.

Hickman did two laps on his BMW and was third in the standings with a speed of 131.952mph, followed by Hillier (130.195mph) in fourth.

Cork’s Mike Browne posted the fastest ever lap by a rider from the Republic of Ireland at 129.104mph on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing BMW to slot into fifth, with 23-time winner John McGuinness sixth on the Honda Racing UK Fireblade at 128.821mph.

Dunlop went out for two laps on his MD Racing Supersport machine and shot to the top of the leaderboard with a speed of 127.557mph.

Yorkshire’s Jamie Coward, who missed most of the session after he stopped at Sarah’s Cottage on his first lap, was second fastest on his KTS Racing/Stanley Stewart Yamaha at 124.675mph.

Young prospect James Hind was third quickest at 124.726mph ahead of Harrison on the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha (122.518mph).

In the Sidecar session, 12-time winners Ben and Tom Birchall set an unofficial lap record on their 600 LCR Honda with a speed of 119.414mph, a time of 18m 57.450s.

Ryan and Callum Crowe were second fastest (116.142mph) and 31 seconds down on the Birchalls after experiencing some issues with their machine.

Final qualifying takes place on Friday with a new daytime session, with the Sidecars out first from 1pm.