Michael Dunlop MBE chalked up his 42nd win on the Snaefell Mountain Course in Wednesday evening’s delayed Lightweight Classic TT.

In a race rescheduled several times, and initially started 48 hours earlier on Monday evening but red-flagged on the first lap, everything went without a problem at the second time of asking.

Dunlop, who had the petrol tank off his 250cc Honda on Glencrutchery Road making adjustments only minutes before the off, appeared to glean more satisfaction from this win than many of his record 33 in the TT and eight others in either the Manx Grand Prix or Classic TT.

His first win round the mountain was in 2006 at the age of 17 on a 125 Honda in the Newcomers’ Manx, but ironically this was his maiden success on a 250 (he was 46th out of 85 finishers the same year on a 250 in the Junior MGP).

‘This bike is my pride and joy. I rode it, my brother rode it - it's close to my heart this one.

‘It’s a nice thing to have, it lives in the house. I knew I was fit to win if the bike ran well,’ he added.

Reduced to two laps, it was the only race to take place on a day of mixed weather with heavy showers of rain throughout much of the morning, into the early afternoon.

Two seconds clear of Mike Browne’s Laycock Yamaha at the first split, the latter appeared to be struggling with gear selection at Cronk-y-Voddy.

He pulled in a few miles up the road at Ballaugh to make adjustments.

Dunlop was by now 8s clear of Ian Lougher on the second Laycock/Danfay Yamaha, with Sulby man Dan Sayle at another 3.7 and Stuart Hall a close fourth 0.7 down on him.

Sayle’s fellow Manxman Nathan Harrison was an early retirement at Ballacraine, leaving Alan Oversby and Craig Neve as the best of the 400s.

The lead was out to 13.7s at Ramsey, where Adam McLean was up to third in front of Sayle and Hall.

Browne was back on the pace, albeit down the order somewhat, but after dragging more time back despite a strong headwind on the mountain climb, but he perhaps pushed it too hard on the approach to Brandywell and slid off, shortly after retaking team-mate Lougher on the road. Luckily he was OK.

A lap of 18min 50s (115.015mph) gave Dunlop a 16.9s advantage over new second place man McLean at half distance, with Lougher third (7.6) and Sayle fourth (3.4) on John Chapman’s Honda.

Oversby was also reported to be off at Brandywell. He was conscious and talking, but flown to Noble’s for a check-up and later discharged.

This elevated the returning from injury Neve as the leading 400 in eighth spot.

Watching his boards, Dunlop kept fellow Ulsterman McLean at arm’s length on lap two, leading by 15.5s at the Bungalow with less than seven miles to go. McLean then dropped a load of time on the descent, later revealing that his Laylaw Racing Yamaha had seized a cylinder at the highest point of the course.

He’d grabbed the clutch to save it, then eased the clutch back out and the engine restarted on the one good pot, enabling him nurse it to the finish.

Dunlop was home and in the winners’ enclosure with a final margin of 47 seconds over Lougher, but McLean had to wait until both Sayle and Hall had crossed the line to see if he had retained his spot on the podium.

He did by less than six 10ths of a second from Sayle, with Hall another 0.04 of a second back in fifth.

The leading three 400s were ridden by Neve, Castletown’s Paul Cassidy and Owen Monaghan in eighth to 10th - Neve later receiving the Dave Leach Trophy from the four-time TT winner.

Dunlop had barely stepped down off the podium before he was back at work removing the front brakes he had borrowed from John McGuinness’s and fitting them back on the latter’s Vimto Honda for the 80-90s Parade lap.