TT 2017: Hutchy: I didn't think we could win

Ian Hutchinson said he didn't feel he had a bike he could win on as he prevailed in a nip and tuck RST Superbike race to secure his 15th Isle of Man TT victory.

Hutchinson came through from fourth place on the opening laps to take up the lead and was pushed hard first by Dean Harrison and then Peter Hickman as he was forced to dig deep to close out the win.

At the finish, the Tyco BMW rider had five seconds in hand over Hickman on the Smiths BMW, with Harrison in third (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki), a further eight seconds in arrears.

"It was the strangest race around here because going into it, no-one knew what pace anyone had. I truly didn't have the bike to win the race and at the start I saw 'P4' but I didn't know how far I was behind the leader," he said.

"I had a bit of luck with people going out and on the last lap there had been a crash at Greeba Castle and myself and James Hillier caught a backmarker there and he slowed up a lot more than us.

"I just want to thank the marshals at the scene because they trust us to keep racing past, so thanks very much for that. Thanks to all my team for putting such a big effort in.

"This bike was built exactly the way I wanted it and we moved to the Dunlop tyres. We worked a lot on the pit stops from last year and it's nice to have some good stops for once."

It was Hutchinson's third win in the Superbike class, with his previous wins coming in 2010, when he won all five solo races to set a new record.

The 37-year-old has now moved ahead of Mike Hailwood in the TT's all-time winners' roll of honour.