Michael Dunlop will start Saturday's Ulster Grand Prix Superbike races from pole position after setting the only 130mph+ lap during Thursday's second and final qualifying session. After Wednesday's session saw heavy rain, Thursday dawned cloudy but with the circuit mainly dry and so this was the session that would determine lap times, Dunlop's lap on the Honda TT Legends machine of 130.828mph seeing him lap two seconds quicker than the Tyco Suzuki of Guy Martin.

Dunlop set the pace initially with an opening lap of 126.51mph but mid-way through the 30-minute session, the Milwaukee Yamaha's of William Dunlop and Conor Cummins moved to the top of the timesheets at 128.45mph and 128.20mph respectively. Martin set an almost identical lap time to Cummins to go joint second with six minutes remaining but on his next lap he went quicker still to go fastest ar 129.27mph.

However, Dunlop, who had pitted to make slight adjustments, went back out on track for the final 5 minutes and after lapping at 129.92mph, his final lap saw him lap at 130.828mph to confirm his pole position. Martin also went quicker but had to settle for second with his lap of 129.534mph. William Dunlop remained in third whilst Cummins' earlier lap of 128.200 was also enough for him to hold onto fourth and the final front row spot.

Gary Johnson, Dean Harrison, Bruce Anstey, Alan Bonner - one of the surprise packages of the session - and Cameron Donald completed the top ten. Newcomer Derek McGee also impressed in 14th place.

Ulster Grand Prix Superbike Qualifying:

1 Michael Dunlop (Honda) 130.828

2 Guy Martin (Suzuki) 129.534

3 William Dunlop (Yamaha) 128.448

4 Conor Cummins (Yamaha) 128.200

5 Gary Johnson (Honda) 127.234

6 Jamie Hamilton (Kawasaki) 126.795

7 Dean Harrison (Kawasaki) 125.896

8 Bruce Anstey (Honda) 125.750

9 Alan Bonner (Honda) 125.746

10 Cameron Donald (Honda) 124.912

Click here for full timesheets