Alastair Seeley completed his hat-trick of pole positions at the North West 200 this afternoon, when he just edged out Michael Dunlop in a shortened Superbike session.
The Briggs Equipment BMW rider lapped at 122.343mph with 15 minutes remaining, which gave him an advantage over the Hawk Racing BMW of Dunlop by just 0.017s, the Northern Irishman having taken over the top spot from early leader Gary Johnson. Any hopes he had of reclaiming the top spot were dashed when the red flag came out due to an incident at Mill Road roundabout.
Johnson led in the early stages and was the first to break the 120mph barrier before Lee Johnston lapped at 121.085mph on his second lap to take over at the top. John McGuinness and James Hillier were also lapping in excess of 120mph as they slotted into third and fourth respectively.
However, Dunlop hit the front on his fifth lap before Seeley retaliated whilst Michael Rutter moved up to third with his best lap being 121.648mph. Johnston slipped back to fourth as Peter Hickman, down in 46th in the early stages, leapt up to fifth with a speed of 120.911mph.
Ian Hutchinson posted a best lap of 120.894mph on his Tyco BMW to go sixth with early leader Johnson slipping back to seventh. McGuinness, meanwhile, suffered a holed radiator and was sitting in the pits when the red flag came out with Hillier and Ryan Farquhar rounding out the top ten.
Bruce Anstey and Conor Cummins were just outside in 11th and 12th with impressive German rider Didier Grams ending up 13th overall.
