Michael Dunlop’s bid for a first Superstock TT win since 2014 was hampered on Tuesday evening by an electronics issue on his BMW, but the record 31-time winner had nothing but praise for race winner Dean Harrison.

Dunlop’s BMW seemed to have an issue off the line at the start of the two-lap RL360 Superstock race and he later revealed the extent of the problem.

“We ended up with an electronic issue,” said the Northern Ireland rider.

“We went off the line and it seemed to get stuck in launch control for some reason, and the blipper stopped working [and was] intermittent.

placeholder image — Michael Dunlop (MD Racing BMW) during Tuesday evening's RL360 Superstock race at Lambfell. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

“It caused us a bit of pain, but in fairness to Dean – fair play to him. I knew Dean would do the first lap great – we knew that, everybody knew that.

“My first lap was horrific, obviously, just not knowing when the bike was blipping and when it wasn’t blipping.

“My electronic sensor jammed and I don’t know if we’ve got a gremlin in the bike, but the blipper was working and then sometimes not working,” added Dunlop, who finished third behind Honda’s Harrison and Davey Todd (8TEN Racing BMW).

“With places so fast here you can’t afford not to know if it’s working or not.

“The bike had it’s issues, again probably the lack of time probably didn’t help us. The two-lap races don’t really… I struggle a wee bit with them.”

Dunlop also reported problems with his rear Dunlop tyre – an issue that affected him on the fourth and final lap of Monday’s Superbike race, when he lost out by only 1.3s to Todd.

“We’re still creating the same issues, but it’s just the way it is, it’s what we have to deal with at the minute,” said Dunlop, who lamented tyre degradation after Monday’s Superbike race.

“We just don’t get any support, so we just have to battle through it ourselves and try and come up with a solution.”

A second Superstock race is scheduled for Friday.