Heavy rain has brought proceedings at today's North West 200 to an early halt, standing water stopping the opening Supersport race on the third lap. Michael Dunlop was leading at the time from Bruce Anstey and Lee Johnston while Thursday evening's race winner Alastair Seeley had worked his way up to fourth from the second wave.

However, with three riders off at Primrose Corner and one at Church Corner, fortunately without injury, the organisers took the decision to stop the race and allow for the circuit to be cleared of surface water as much as possible.

Event director Mervyn Whyte commented, "It's a very challenging day and the elements haven't been good to us. On our first inspection lap at 6.30am we discovered an oil spill but we managed to clear that up without any issue and it's the standing water that's the problem. There's lots of surface water especially along the coast road and with three riders off at Primrose and one at Church, we decided to put the red flag out. Fortunately the riders are all ok but the pressure washer's out to clear a bit of oil and we'll clear some of the water and hopefully get going again in the next 20 minutes.

Race leader Dunlop added, "There's no grip at all but I just got my head down and gave it a go. I tried to take Station Corner flat out but the bike went completely sideways."

British Supersport Championship contender Stuart Easton gave a good indication of conditions by saying, "It's not good at all out there and the visibility's really bad especially on the fast bits, you can only see the edges of the road. The slow bits are ok but you're almost making it up as you go along."