Hickman claims Isle of Man TT victory

He also claimed the outright fastest sector record in two sectors of the 37.73-mile mountain course on his way to winning the race.

But it was not all plain sailing for Hickman as he made a mistake and ran round the Oak tree at Braddon Bridge, losing time before rejoining and registered as down in 10th place at the first check point of Glen Helen. But he soon began to catch up on time and by the end of the first lap he was up into third place.

It was lap two which made Superstock history at the Isle of Man TT where the Smiths Racing BMW rider went on a full charge, setting sector records around the course.

Pulling into the pits, he had taken the Superstock lap record, setting an astonishing 134.077 (16:53.059), just 2.7 seconds off the new outright lap record set by Dean Harrison on Saturday’s opening Superbike race.

After a slow pit stop Hickman had dropped to third on lap three but less than a second covered the top three riders and Hickman was back in charge at the end of the lap by a margin of just one second.

On the final lap Hickman gradually extended his slender lead to over four seconds as he claimed his very first win with the bonus of breaking the record he had set two laps earlier with a 134.403mph (16:50.601).

Hickman said: “I made such a mistake on that first lap. I was just that tiny bit too late on the brakes into Braddon and had to go straight on, stop and turn around and back around the tree again and lost loads of time.

“I saw ninth place on the board and just got my head down and set about catching up.”

Earlier in the day Hickman took a hard-fought third place in the first of two Supersport races, setting his best-ever speed on the final lap in the class as he fought to regain third place from James Hillier.

On Saturday, Hickman retired into the pits at the end of the first lap of the opening Superbike race after encountering problems with the injector on the Smiths Racing BMW.

Hickman is back in action on Wednesday when he contests the second Supersport race before taking in the four-lap Lightweight race where he will be riding the ER650cc Kawasaki’ for three-time TT winner Ryan Farquhar’s team.