Michael Dunlop continued his stranglehold over the TT’s Supersport honours on Friday lunchtime when he claimed a second victory of the week in the event’s middleweight division.

In almost a carbon copy of his Supersport success on Tuesday, Dunlop was initially behind rival Dean Harrison on corrected time but a rapid pit stop at the end of the first lap gave him the springboard to fly to a 26.126 second win over the Honda Racing man.

Peter Hickman bagged his third podium of the week on the PHR Performance Trooper Triumph, a further 13.537 seconds down on Harrison.

Dunlop was quick to praise the MD Racing/Scars Racing team and the Ducati V2 in the winner’s enclosure after the three-lap race: ‘The bike was phenomenal - the wee bike was mint. It was great to get the win for Ducati with the bike in the special yellow livery.’

Speaking about his rapid 31-second pit stop at the end of the opening lap, the 37 year old added: ‘The team have been great in the pits all week.

‘It gave me the opportunity to start upping my pace on the second lap and build from there.’

Such was Dunlop’s pace that he caught Harrison on the road by the time they crossed the finish line at the TT Grandstand.

Harrison, who set the class’s fastest ever opening lap of 17 minutes 31.157 seconds (129.218mph), was happy with another runners-up spot after finishing second on Tuesday.

The Ballaugh resident did, however, admit the team had a slight problems in the mandatory pit stops: ‘I’m happy with second - the bike was faultless.

‘We had a little issue in the pits when the fuel cap wouldn’t go back on, but I can’t complain really.’

Hickman was also happy with third as he continues to build back up to his best following last year’s qualifying crash at Kerrowmoar. The 14-time winner said: ‘I’m really happy with that. That makes three races and three podiums.

‘The Trooper Triumph was working really well and the conditions were way, way better than they were earlier today.’

After the week’s wet weather thankfully the sun came out on Friday morning, improving conditions almost by the minute and reducing the amount of damp patches around the course. Indeed most agreed that they were better than when the first race was run on Tuesday afternoon.

The weather was the least of Mike Browne’s problems, a faulty transponder on the Boyce Precision Engineering by Russell Racing Yamaha R6 meaning he rode the majority of the race not knowing what position he was in.

As it happened he finished an impressive fourth, 19.417 seconds down on Hickman, but only 0.928s ahead of Paul Jordan. The latter man had to nurse his Jackson Racing Ducati through the last lap with the machine overheating.

Behind Jordan, who had earlier in the race had set his personal best lap time for the class at 127.164mph, was Josh Brookes on the impressive-looking Uggly & Co Racing Suzuki 750.

Dominic Hertbertson was seventh, Jamie Coward eighth and Shaun Anderson ninth which was just outside his best finish at the TT.

The experienced Ian Hutchinson rounded out the top 10, just ahead of Mitchell Rees, the New Zealander claiming his best Mountain Course finish of 11th in only his second year at the event.

Manx pair Nathan Harrison and Michael Evans were 11th and 12th respectively with Castletown’s Paul Cassidy 32nd and Glen Maye’s Jorge Halliday 40th of the 42 finishers.

Joe Yeardsley, Conor Cummins and Marcus Simpson were all retirements, the latter two in the pits at the end of lap two.

Jamie Cringle came off at Union Mills but was reported to be conscious and talking by race control. He was taken to Noble’s Hospital for further treatment.