Michael Dunlop set the fastest time during practice for the Armoy road races on Friday evening, which was cut short due to heavy rain.

Dunlop claimed provisional pole on his MD Racing Honda Fireblade by almost two seconds from Derek Sheils on the CD Racing Kawasaki with Tyco Suzuki’s Guy Martin a close third.

William Dunlop qualified fourth for the Superbike class on Chris Dowd’s Yamaha R6 after he was unable to start his Milwaukee Yamaha R1.

“It was nothing major, just a problem with the battery and we’ll have the big bike sorted in the morning,” Dunlop said.

As a result of the poor weather, four practice sessions will be held on Saturday morning prior to the start of racing, including the second Superbike session.

Michael Dunlop, a hat-trick winner at Armoy in 2012, will start from pole in the Supersport class after leading brother William by a few tenths of a second, with Martin third on the GSX-R600.

Jeremy McWilliams completed his first laps as a newcomer at Armoy and will stake his claim for a front row start in the Supertwin race during practice for the 650cc machines on Saturday.




.