Michael Dunlop was a disappointed man after Monday's opening Supersport race and after dominating the class in recent years - and in record-breaking style - third place was an unaccustomed position for the Ballymoney man.
Riding his own MD Racing Honda, the 25-year was always in close contention with race winner and Gary Johnson but never close enough to pressure the leading two and he had to settle for third, some 11 seconds down on Johnson.
"I had a fairly good race but I'm disappointed that I couldn't do as good a job as I know that I can. Bruce and Gary got the hammer down from the start and when Gary came up on my back wheel, I let him go by as I didn't want to ruin his race," said Dunlop, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
"When we got up on to the Mountain he seemed to want me to go by again, probably because it was damp and he preferred to follow me rather than lead.
"The pace wasn't the highest but it was a tight race and with a few changes to the bike, we can another crack at it on Wednesday."
