Peter Hickman enjoyed his first official outing on the Billown Course over closed roads on Monday evening.

In near perfect conditions, with a large number of spectators lining much of the 4.25 mile course, the outright TT lap record holder donned the obligatory novice vest and completed several speed-controlled laps with other rookies.

Then, in the first qualifying session at 6.37pm, he took his Swan Racing 765 Triumph round in a time of two-and-half minutes precisely on his fourth timed lap to slot into 10th place in front of locals Jamie Williams, David Rigby and the returning Conor Cummins.

Top of the listings was Paul Jordan on his Jackson Racing Ducati V2 at 108.206mph, a mere two tenths of a second quicker than Mikey Evans, with the latter's fellow Manxman Marcus Simpson provisionally third on a similar 765 Triumph triple.

Ireland's Mike Browne and Michael Sweeney were next on a pair of 600cc Yamaha R6s, while locals Grant Thomson and Paul Cassidy were split by Barry Furber in eighth spot.

Second best newcomer to Hickman was local plumber David Rigby in a very respectable 12th place at 101.5mph average. TT regular Julian Trummer of Lebring, Austria, was 16th quickest at a shade under 100mph average.

Hickman lapped marginally quicker in the Superbike session on his Monster Energy BMW, going round in a time of 2min 28.87sec (102.773mph) to finish the session 16th quickest, mid-pack in a total field of 30 riders.

Fastest were Dean and Nathan Harrison at 114.585 and 112.00mph respectively, Dean going round in a best time of 2:13.525, more than three seconds quicker than his unrelated namesake.

Browne and Jordan completed a Honda Fireblade top four, with Michael Dunlop narrowly edging out the Manx trio of Simpson, Cummins and Joe Yeardsley for fifth place on the initial grid. Other locals in the mix were Evans and Thomson, 12th and 13th quickest.

The Lightweight/Supertwin class was also headed by Northern Ireland's Jordan at 105.233mph on the Jackson Racing Aprilia 660, approximately 1.4s faster than Laxey's Yeardsley on the Flitwick Motorcycles R7 Yamaha, in turn comfortably ahead of Sweeney, Furber and Rob Hodson, with Jamie Williams eighth best of 37 riders in the class.

The Supersport B class was headed by Matthew Rostron at 97.3mph from Daniel Pearson, Damien Crook and newcomers Joey Lambden, Adrian Hodson and Nicholas Round.

The classic sidecar session was red flagged early following an incident involving Carl Fenwick and local passenger Jake Lowther on lap two.

They were later described as 'walking wounded' and were brought back to the paddock.

Qualifying continues this evening (Tuesday), with roads closing at 6pm, followed by a final sidecar session on Wednesday morning around 11am. Roads are set to close at 9.45am with the opening Senior solo race over seven laps at 10.20 and the sidecar practice to follow.

There are five races on Wednesday evening (roads close 6pm until no later than 9.40), with racing all day Thursday. Roads will initially close from 9.30am for five solo races, re-opening for lunch no later than 12.45pm, then reclosing for the final four races of the meeting at 1.30.

The Ellan Vannin Fuels Solo Championship is scheduled for 3.20 over nine laps, followed by the Daryl Blake Construction Classic Sidecar at 4pm. Roads will reopen no later than 4.45pm.