Ian Hutchinson won his third Monster Energy Supersport TT in a row on Monday morning.
The Bingley Bullet led the four-lap race from flag-to-flag, bringing home the Keith Flint’s Team Traction Control Yamaha 14.303 seconds ahead of main rival Michael Dunlop in a new race record of 1 hour 11 minutes 36.808 seconds (126.445mph).
Dean Harrison completed the top three on his Silicone Engineering Kawasaki a further 38.609s down on Saturday’s Superbike winner.
The battle for the remaining top-six places was a fierce one with James Hillier fourth only 0.736 seconds ahead of Manx favourite Conor Cummins. John McGuinness rounded out the top six.
A delighted Hutchinson said after his seventh Supersport victory: ‘I seem to have a connection with this bike. I knew I had to push hard on the first two sectors and I did.’
Dunlop added: ‘I struggled on the first lap and was unable to make up the time.’
‘I don’t think Hutchy’s bike is in another league though and we’ve got plenty we can work on for Wednesday’s second supersport race.’
Now a 12-time TT winner, Hutchinson was on the pace from the off building up a 8.226-second lead over the first lap, which he slowly added to.
Michael Rutter was an early retirement as Harrison overhauled Hillier on the time charts to slot into the top three.
The podium places remained the same for the rest of the race, but behind them Hillier, McGuinness and Cummins on his new Padgett’s Honda jostled throughout to come ahead of Lee Johnston, William Dunlop and Steve Mercer,
It was a tough race on machinery with Peter Hickman, Ivan Lintin, Bruce Anstey and Martin Jessop among those joining island residents Si Fulton and Dave Madsen-Mygdal on the retirements list.
Gary Johnson also had problems in the pits on the TT3 Racing Triumph but he rejoined to finish 10th.
Full report in issue three of TT News - on sale Thursday.