Isle of Man TT: Hickman and Todd shine in qualifying

Peter Hickman set the fastest lap of qualifying week at the Isle of Man TT with a speed of 134.638mph in the Superstock class on Friday night.

Meanwhile Davey Todd topped the practice leaderboard for the Superbikes, after recording a lap of 133.942mph – 16 minutes 54.079 seconds – on his Milwaukee BMW earlier in the day, which is unofficially his fastest lap at the event.

Hickman holds the absolute lap record for the Mountain Course at 136.358, set last year on his way to a double victory in Superstocks.

The FHO Racing BMW rider’s lap time on Friday was 16 minutes 48.837 seconds, more than six seconds behind his circuit benchmark of 12 months ago.

The Lincolnshire rider has won 10 of the last 13 1000cc TT races, taking in Superbikes and Superstocks.

Todd is second best of the Superstocks overall this week with 132.976, with Michael Dunlop third on his Honda (132.674).

Todd has only one podium finish to his name at the famous public roads event, a third place in the 2022 Superstock race, but is hotly fancied to improve on that record this year and perhaps score a maiden success.

The Yorkshireman has yet to be off the rostrum in any race he has finished this season, securing a hat-trick at the North West 200 road races, winning British Superstock events at Oulton Park and Donington, plus taking second and third in the British Supersport curtain-raiser at Navarra.

The 28-year-old is seeking to halt the domination of established frontrunners Hickman, Dunlop and Dean Harrison, who have won 26 of the last 27 solo races, excluding TT Zero races.

Hickman lies second in the Superbikes at 133.851, with Dunlop next at 132.728, followed by Harrison with 132.596.

Dunlop, who sits one win short of his late uncle Joey’s all-time record of 26 wins, is fastest Supersport of the week on 127.649, closely followed by Jamie Coward and Todd, with the Northern Irishman also topping the Supertwins with a lap of 121.882 set on Friday evening.

There will be a final qualifying session on Saturday morning, with the first race of the week, Supersport race one, scheduled to start at 13:30 BST.