Michael Dunlop shattered the Classic TT’s outright lap record on his way to victory in Sunday afternoon’s Formula One race.

The 37 year old threw in a final lap of 17 minutes 32.294 seconds, at an average speed of 129.08mph, to break Bruce Anstey’s previous record by a staggering 13 seconds.

Dunlop chalked up his seventh win in this class with a dominant performance on the Team Classic Suzuki on what was overcast conditions on the Mountain Course.

He finished 20.202 seconds ahead of runner-up Jamie Coward, with early leader, and the man that had set an unofficial lap record in qualifying, Mike Browne third a further 6.574s down on Coward.

Such was the pace at the front that Jamie Coward and Nathan Harrison were also inside Anstey’s lap record set in 2017.

Dunlop admitted in the winner’s enclosure he perhaps could have gone quicker. He said: ‘I nearly ran out of petrol on the run down the mountain, so I had to manage it a little bit.

‘I pulled out the chalk there. The wee bike has had a small problem all week which we’ve had to manage.

‘The boys have done a really good job with the bike, but there’s bits we can improve on it. It’s the first time I’ve really rode it.’

Coward, who was on the Greenall Racing Kawasaki, was happy with second spot and having the chance to ride in close proximity to Dunlop: ‘I knew I had good pace and it was nice to ride around with him on the last lap and pick up a few nuggets from him.’

Browne admitted he’d struggled to replicate the pace he set earlier in the week on the Electric Van Co Kawasaki ZXR750 after a late set-up change.

The Irishman said: ‘We had a great first lap, but we made a change for the race and the bike wasn’t quite as good as it was in practice. I’m still happy with the result though.’

Coward’s Greenall team-mate Harrison came home in fourth spot, 8.8s down on the top three.

Australian ace Davo Johnson was a further 30 seconds down on the Manxman in fifth, while Michael Sweeney completed the top six, a minute and 22 seconds on Johnson.

Austrian Julian Trummer was seventh, with Laxey’s Joe Yeardsley eighth.

Yeardsley’s compatriots Mikey Evans, Paul Cassidy and Jorge Halliday all finished inside the top 20.

Evans was 13th, Castletown man Cassidy 14th and Halliday 18th.

As usual with the Classic races, there were a number of mechanical retirements.

Matt Stevenson and Peter Hickman retired on the first lap, the latter pulling into the pits at the end of opening lap on the iconic WizNorton Rotary machine, while lying in 24th.

Other high-profile retirements included Dominic Herbertson, Rob Hodson and Conor Cummins, the latter pulling in the Steadplan Racing Kawasaki on the third and final lap.

Brian McCormack was reported off at Greeba Castle on last lap and was taken to Noble’s Hospital with suspected leg injuries.