A dry, sunny evening met the competitors for Monday evening’s practice session with conditions described as good all around the course. Riders were again warned of wet tar at Guthrie’s, while the setting sun would again cause a problem as the evening wore on.

The session was the first for the 600cc and 1000cc machines as well as the majority of the leading front runners and they were all keen to get their 2012 campaign underway, although they had to wait an additional 20 minutes to allow marshals to get to their positions around the 37.73 miles.

The low sun was causing all sorts of problems for the field and speeds were slightly down across all the classes, but Johnson, Farquhar, Dunlop, Donald and Martin again put in laps in excess of 123mph, while Kneen went third quickest in the 600cc class.

However, McGuinness threw the gauntlet down and, with the session extended to 8.05pm after the earlier delay, posted a final lap of 128.267mph to move comfortably clear at the top of the leaderboard.

At 8.10pm it was the turn of the sidecars to take to the Mountain Course and Dave Molyneux/Patrick Farrance proved quickest at 111.856mph .

Jones/Murphy and the Birchall brothers - Tom and Ben - were both involved in separate incidents and taken to Nobles hospital.

Today’s session is scheduled to start at 6.20pm with a Superbike/Superstock/Supersport session, followed by a Supersport and Lightweight session at 7.05pm and sidecars scheduled to get away at 8pm.

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