Michael Dunlop has taken his first win of the day on Saturday at the North West 200 in controversial circumstances, igniting a war of words between him and rivals (and fellow podium finishers) Davey Todd and Peter Hickman.
The outcome of the six-lap superbike race led to 8Ten Racing BMW rider Hickman refusing to join Dunlop and his team-mate Todd on the podium.
Todd was an early race leader in the first superbike outing of the day, looking to replicate his success in Thursday evening’s first race. He was escaping away while Dunlop and Hickman battled for the top five along with Dean Harrison and Alastair Seeley.
That escalated into contact between Dunlop and Hickman at the Mather’s Cross chicane that took both of them wide, something that they then repeated (along with Harrison) at Metropole, handing Todd a 15-second lead that looked all but unassailable.
What's going on at Metropole? 🤷#BBCBikes #NW200 pic.twitter.com/0Oi6h9pbcP
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To make things even worse, Dunlop then looked set to receive a 10-second penalty for his rejoining at the chicane, after he appeared not to stop before coming back onto the track, according to Hickman (who did stop).
“It’s dead simple,” Hickman explained after the race. “If you run on through a chicane, you have to stop in the stop box, put your foot down, and continue.
“Michael obviously got pulled into Mather’s Cross by me, we both missed the chicane, I went straight on, cut across and stopped like you’re supposed to.
“If you don’t do that, you get a 10-second penalty. That’s the rules, and as far as I’m concerned one of us gets a 10-second penalty and the other doesn’t.”
With the bit between his teeth, Dunlop then delivered one of the rides of his career, charging back through the pack to hunt down Todd. He finally took the top spot off Todd at the start of the final lap and eventually finished the race nearly two seconds clear - and having his penalty rescinded afterwards.
“We ran on at the chicane,” Dunlop explained. “We were pushed into the chicane. Pete [Hickman] jumped over the kerb, which I thought was dangerous, we got going, I ran on at Metropole again, got going, and came back to win.
“The rule is that if you run on through the stop box, you have to stop and put your foot down, but for safety reasons I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t jump off the grass and into the stop box - it was too dangerous.
“They’ve obviously got a problem with it, but at the end of the day I didn’t gain an advantage, I caught everybody, and I won the race.”
That wasn’t enough for Hickman, nor for a furious Todd - who clearly believes that, even account for a technical problem that cost him speed, he was robbed by race control.
“It’s his [Dunlop's] backyard, isn’t it?” he fumed to the TV cameras. “Fair play to him because he’s riding well, but we should have won the race.
“I was in front and we had a technical issue with the bike and it started running really slow. I don’t know what was wrong with it, but I didn’t know if I would be able to finish.
“But I have no words. We have rules, and they just change the rules to suit whoever it suits. I don’t want to say too much, but it’s the way it is and we have to race on.”
It’s believed that Hickman, who finished third behind Todd, has lodged an official protest to the results.
