Bruce Anstey claimed pole position for Saturday's two Superbike races at the Metzeler Ulster Grand Prix with the Valvoline Racing by Padgett's Honda rider putting in a late flyer to pip the Tyco Suzuki pairing of Guy Martin and William Dunlop. Anstey's lap of 133.163s gave him a half second advantage over Martin with Dunlop a further second back.
Martin was first out the blocks and his first flying lap of 132.017mph saw him lead the way from Anstey, William Dunlop and Lee Johnston and the Lincolnshire rider went slightly quicker on his second lap, improving to 132.362mph. However, Anstey closed the gap third time around to just 0.3s with a speed of 132.148mph. Another man on the move was Manxman Dan Kneen who, after posting his first ever 130mph lap of Dundrod on his opening lap, improved to 131.201mph second time around to briefly move up to third.
He was gradually bumped down the order though as William Dunlop and Lee Johnston went quicker but the final minutes of the session saw more action at the top of the leaderboard as firstly Anstey improved to 133.163mph and Martin a lap later to 132.800mph. William also broke the 132mph barrier at 132.045mph to ensure two Tyco Suzuki's will line up on the front row.
A somewhat lacklustre Michael Dunlop, third after the opening session, finally got somewhere close to where he wants to be in the dying seconds and a lap of 131.683mph left him fourth overall and only two seconds adrift of Anstey. Johnston's quickest lap of 131.670mph placed him fifth overall just ahead of Kneen who rounded out the second row on the overall times.
Next up on the grid will be newcomer Peter Hickman who was again sending shockwaves through the paddock with his performance. He only managed to get out with ten minutes to spare after his Ice Valley BMW team worked wonders to repair his damaged his bike and the Lincolnshire rider was on the pace immediately with his first flying lap being 129.652mph. He saved the best until last though with a speed of 131.190mph not only placing him seventh overall but also making him, unofficially, the fastest ever rider to lap the Dundrod course.
Dean Harrison holds the official record with a lap of 130.230mph set in 2012 and he was next up in eighth with Ian Hutchinson and Steve Mercer in ninth and tenth, the duo having their first outings at Dundrod since 2010 and 2011 respectively. They were the last of the field to lap at more than 129mph.
Overall Leaderboard
1 Bruce Anstey 133.163mph
2 Guy Martin 132.800
3 William Dunlop 132.045
4 Michael Dunlop 131.683
5 Lee Johnston 131.670
6 Dan Kneen 131.208
7 Peter Hickman 131.190
8 Dean Harrison 130.660
9 Ian Hutchinson 129.983
10 Steve Mercer 129.454
Click here for full timesheets
