Glorious weather conditions greeted the competitors on Thursday morning at Dundrod and it was Guy Martin who claimed pole position for Saturday's Ulster Grand Prix. The Tyco Suzuki rider led the way in the early stages with a lap of 131.119mph and although Michael Dunlop pushed him back to second with ten minutes of the 40-minute session to go, the Kirmington rider responded and a lap of 131.702mph in the final seconds saw him jump back into the top spot.
Dunlop, still struggling with back injuries sustained inbetween meetings, held onto second with brother William moving from fifth to third in the closing moments with a lap of 131.136mph. Times were close though and although only five riders broke the 130mph barrier, they were split by just 1.2s and it was Gary Johnson, a late entrant to the meeting on the Padgetts Honda, and Conor Cummins on the second Tyco Suzuki who completed the top five at 130.957mph and 130.916mph respectively. The latter spent a good ten minutes of the sesssion in the pits as he made adjustments to the handling of the GSXR1000 Suzuki.
Bruce Anstey, whose only outing since the TT has been a brief test at Mallory, took sixth with a final lap of 129.909mph with Stephen Thompson, Adrian Archibald, Michael Pearson and Ryan Farquhar rounding out the top ten. The quickest newcomers were Lee Johnston and Dean Harrison who placed 13th and 14th respectively with impressive lap speeds of 126.799mph and 126.670mph.
Top six times
1 Guy Martin 131.702mph
2 Michael Dunlop 131.574
3 William Dunlop 131.136
4 Gary Johnson 130.957
5 Conor Cummins 130.916
6 Bruce Anstey 129.909
Click here for full timesheets
