Alastair Seeley on the Gearlink Kawasaki at the North West 200.

Record-chaser Alastair Seeley topped the Supersport times on the Gearlink Kawasaki to make it a red-hot double in the glorious sunshine on Thursday at the Vauxhall International North West 200.

Seeley posted a time of 4m 36.064s, which put him one second ahead of Somerset’s Martin Jessopp, who has been strong all week on the Riders Motorcycles Triumph.

Also fastest in the Superstock class, Seeley was only one tenth ahead of Lee Johnston, who was right in the hunt on the East Coast/Burdens Triumph.

Former NW200 Supersport winner William Dunlop was fourth fastest on the IC Racing Caffrey Yamaha even though he missed the last 16 minutes of the session with a bike problem.

Isle of Man TT star John McGuinness jumped to fifth in the closing stages on the Jackson Racing Honda with Peter Hickman beginning to find his rhythm on the Trooper Beer Kawasaki in sixth, 4.4 seconds down on Seeley.

Michael Rutter (Bathams SMT Kawasaki) and Dean Harrison on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki were the first eight.

Ian Hutchinson failed to register a time after stopping on his Came BPT Yamaha early on while Michael Dunlop was down in 16th after making several pit stops, with his time from Tuesday standing as his best lap.

Kyle White