Home-grown Alastair Seeley was fastest on the first day of qualifying for the North West 200 on Tuesday.

In mixed conditions with damp, then steaming roads as they rapidly dried again in the warming temperatures, speeds widely fluctuated on the 8.97-mile Triangle course.

Seeley was quickest in the opening Supersport session on the 955 Powertoolmate Ducati twin (vacated by the sidelined Ian Hutchinson) at 116.751mph, but only by four tenths of a second from Richard Cooper.

The latter’s BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha team-mate Dean Harrison was the best of the TT men, third quickest 0.162 of a second faster than Michael Dunlop.

Peter Hickman’s K2 Trooper Triumph triple 765 was fifth quickest.

Conor Cummins was the best of the Isle of Man riders on the Milenco by Padgett’s Motorcycles Honda, 11th quickest, with Jamie Williams 25th on the JLG/NCE Racing Honda CBR.

The Superbikes were next out with Dunlop clocking the best lap at 122.943mph, almost two seconds faster than Seeley on the Milwaukee BMW Motorrad, then Lee Johnston, Hickman and John McGuinness.

Cummins was ninth best at 118.657mph, with Nathan Harrison (Honda) 11th, Michael Evans (Suzuki) 25th and Anthony Redmond (BMW) 33rd.

Cooper topped the Supertwin class with a lap of 111.723mph on Ryan Farquhar’s Kawasaki, 3.4s quicker than veteran campaigner Jeremy McWilliams who has jumped bikes to the JMW Bayview Racing Paton.

Paul Jordan was third quickest on the Castletown-based PreZ Racing by Prosper2 Kawasaki.

Local veteran Dave Madsen-Mygdal was 19th best on the Team Gimbert Kawasaki and 20-year-old Gareth Arnold of Glen Auldyn 22nd quickest on his Jenar Racing Aprilia.

The Superstock class had the best conditions of the day with dry roads and rising temperatures,Seeley making full use of it to record the quickest lap of the meeting to date at 123.361mph on the TAS Racing Synetic BMW.

He was1.96s clear of Dunlop’s own MD Racing Honda, with Hickman at another 1.12s from Davey Todd, Lee Johnston, Dean Harrison and Josh Brookes.

Cummins was eighth quickest, Nathan Harrison 11th, Evans 20th and Redmond 32nd.

The next practice is on Thursday (9.15am to 3.15pm), with racing on Saturday (9.15am to 7pm).