TT 2022: Hickman back on top with 132mph lap

Isle of Man outright lap record holder Peter Hickman was back at the top of the timesheets in Wednesday’s qualifying session courtesy of a 131.957mph lap on the Gas Monkey Garage BMW.

But the Louth rider was kept honest by Dean Harrison as the DAO Kawasaki man ended only two seconds down on his rival with Davey Todd in third.

The Superbike/Superstock/Supersport session commenced and, in a change of tack, it was Peter Hickman (Gas Monkey Garage by FHO Racing) who was first away with James Hillier (RICH Energy OMG Racing), Dean Harrison (DAO Racing Kawasaki), Michael Rutter (Bathams Ales) and Jamie Coward (KTS Racing powered by Steadplan) next to go.

There was little to choose between Hickman and Harrison from the start to the finish, never more than a few tenths of a second separating them, but at the completion of the lap, it was Hickman who was the quickest at 131.293mph. It was close though with Harrison just 0.8s adrift with a speed of 131.181mph. Davey Todd was third and the last rider above 130mph with 130.768mph with Michael Dunlop (128.797mph) and Coward (128.19mph) completing the top six. Hickman pitted to make changes to the BMW but Harrison pressed on and went back to the top of the leaderboard with a second lap of 131.713mph. Conor Cummins increased his pace to 130.174mph with fellow Honda man John McGuinness MBE also improving to 129.117mph. Dunlop was sandwiched in between at 129.391mph. That pushed Coward back to seventh ahead of Hillier, Phil Crowe and Nathan Harrison. However, Hickman’s changes clearly worked and he flashed across the line at 131.957mph to go almost two seconds quicker than Harrison’s earlier time. Further back, Shaun Anderson (125.556mph) and Rob Hodson (124.388mph) both improved their