Michael Dunlop admits “I made an error” that cost him Isle of Man TT history

Dunlop ended the event with four wins, one short of the all-time record for the most victories (26) held by his legendary uncle Joey Dunlop.

He lost out to Peter Hickman in the event-closing Senior TT, a race where he could have equalled his uncle’s all-time tally, but has now revealed what went wrong.

"I thought we would have definitely gone quicker,” he said. 

“I made an error on my own behalf. I tried something.

"I thought the pace would be a lot quicker than it was. But that didn't happen.

"I thought we should have been well into the 136mph, but for some reason the pace slowed down a wee bit. I don't know why.

"I thought the pace would be a lot quicker and we made a wee change to allow for that. I think we just lost a bit of grip or something.

"The boys were pushing hard, we knew that. It took me a lap or two to get into it.

"We ran out of a bit of scope, really."

A change to his front suspension at the second pitstop failed to help Dunlop make up time on Hickman or Dean Harrison in front of him.

"We struggled and there is only so much you can do with the tools during a pit stop,” Dunlop said. 

“But that's just the way it was.

"We always try to go faster and we had to try something."

Still, history beckons Dunlop in 2024.

“We have won four this week,” he reflected. 

“Which is pretty good. We could have won more, we could have won less.

"That's just the way the game goes."