Rider Liaison Officer Richard 'Milky' Quayle suffered the embarrassment of failing to finish the Newcomers speed-controlled lap when he got a puncture on the Mountain Mile. It meant that John McGuinness ended up with seven newcomers in his wheel tracks rather than the scheduled three!

Double winner Chris Palmer has made a return to racing at the TT for the first time since 2010. Riding a 650cc Kawasaki built by Supertwins guru Ryan Farquhar, the Castletown-based rider posted the ninth fastest time in opening practice at 110.891mph.

Italian ace Stefano Bonetti has been forced to pull out of this year's event after failing to fully recover from the multiple injuries he sustained at last year's Macau Grand Prix.

French newcomer and Dark Dog Tour Champion Denis Bouan has been on the Island all of May learning the course but a road crash has left him nursing leg injuries and he only managed to complete one lap in opening practice.

Fellow newcomer and Romanian Supersport Champion Petre Pop had an opening lap of 101.01mph on his 600cc Honda but slid off, fortunately without injury, at Whitegates on his second lap.

Josh Brookes and Brank Srdanov grabbed all the Newcomers headlines on Saturday but an equally impressive lap that went unnoticed was the 108.39mph speed set by Irish 125cc Champion Sam Wilson on his 600cc Yamaha. The Yamaha rider was well placed to break the 110mph barrier second time around before retiring at the 11th Milestone.

Gary Johnson has gained a late ride in the Lightweight race riding one of the Chinese WK machines. The 2011 Supersport winner only sat on the bike for the first time on his opening lap but a best lap of 109.500mph shows the bike has plenty of potential. Aussie dave Johnson will ride a second WK bike in the race.

Leading rider Dan Stewart completed a lap of the course on his pushbike on Sunday, taking 2hrs30m at a more sedate average of 17.5mph.