TT
Dunlop Lands 24th Win
Dunlop’s win saw him overtake John McGuinness on the all-time winners’ board.
Michael Dunlop’s incredible TT continued tonight as he delivered another big win in the Supertwin race.
Dunlop’s win this evening takes him to 24 around the course as he overtook John McGuinness on the all-time winners’ board.
Leading from Glen Helen on the first lap he was 4.533 seconds ahead of Jamie Coward with Mike Browne following up his impressive showing in qualifying a further 1.2s down in third.
Heading out of Ramsey MD had stretched his lead to 12.956 seconds with Hickman losing ground on Brown slipping to 2.826 down in fourth.
With a handful of retirements on the first lap, Dunlop ended the lap in the pits with a healthy 14 plus second lead over Coward.
Heading out for lap two Dunlop continued to set the pace as he found the tightest of gaps to pass Coward to lead on the road as well as the times.
Dunlop nips down the side of Coward to lead on the road ?#TT2023 pic.twitter.com/EZKjvZnrRG
— Isle of Man TT Races (@ttracesofficial) June 6, 2023
Arguably the story of the night, which almost seems amazing to say, was going on behind Dunlop as Browne opened up a 14 second lead over Hickman.
The Cork man was inching closer and closer to Coward, just 1.9 seconds back through Ballaugh on lap two, cutting that to 1.1 second going through Hairpin, leaving him 17 seconds ahead of Hickman.
By the time they got to Bungalow, Browne had just inched ahead of Coward by less than a second, stretching that to 2.1 seconds in front of the Grandstand, with Dunlop 21.9 seconds clear at the front.
On the final lap, Dunlop continued his strategy from earlier in the week by just controlling his lead without seeing to break records and risk making any mistakes.
Again the story was behind him as Browne and Coward traded places again, the latter moving just 0.011 second clear to go second at Ballaugh.
Heading out of Ramsey, Browne again took second, going 1.218 seconds ahead of Coward as they climbed up the Mountain.
With more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel (hi Hatty) and Dunlop off lap record pace, all eyes were on whether Coward or Browne would claim second.
By Bungalow Coward had cut Browne’s lead over him to 1.367 seconds, but while MD was celebrating his win, Browne came across the line to finish second 2.2 seconds ahead of Coward to conclude what had been a really stunning battle between the two and to land the Irishman his first ever podium on the course.
