BRADFORD claimed two of the top five places in the opening six-lap RST Superbike race at the Isle of Man TT.

Bingley's Ian Hutchinson was second, breaking the outright lap record, behind winner Michael Dunlop, while Bradford's Dean Harrison was a creditable fifth.

Morecambe's John McGuinness was third, claiming the 45th TT podium in his illustrious career.

Dunlop shattered the lap and race records in recording the first ever sub-17 minute lap of the mountain course in notching his 12th TT victory.

The 27-year old’s first two laps were both under 17 minutes, the quickest being 133.393mph to win by 19 seconds from Hutchinson.

Dunlop, whose race winning time was a staggering 1min 15.643sec inside the old race record, signalled his intentions from the off, taking the lead at Glen Helen on the opening lap from Hutchinson by two seconds

Dunlop was on lap-record pace from a standing start, and with a sensational lap of 133.369mph, he recorded the first ever sub-17 minute lap which gave him a 3.6sec lead over Hutchinson, whose lap of 132.892mph was also inside the old outright lap record.

Harrison had taken over third but Hutchinson caught McGuinness on the road and his second lap was almost identical to his first at 132.884mph but Dunlop went quicker still at 133.393mph, extending his lead to 7.5sec, with Harrison still in third,

Dunlop made over four seconds on Hutchinson in the pits and the lead was 15 seconds at Glen Helen, with the Ulsterman having the Bingley rider in his sights on the road, with Harrison secure in fourth.

By the end of the fourth lap, Hutchinson, McGuinness and Dunlop were all circulating on the road together, with the Honda man getting back ahead of Hutchinson for a brief period.

The opening day was marred by the deaths of 50-year-old father-of-four Paul Shoesmith during solo practice on Saturday night, and sidecar driver Dwight Beare.

Hutchinson tweeted: "It can be a horrible cruel world sometimes, I've never been so horrified and hurt by Paul shoesmith accident My thoughts are with his family."