Dunlop moved into second on the all-time winners’ list at the TT in 2023 when he notched up his 25th success, putting him one off the record held by his late uncle Joey Dunlop since 2000.
Winning both of the Supersport races last year, Dunlop was overwhelming favourite coming into Saturday’s opening contest for the class – which was delayed to 2:45pm local time due to a road traffic accident in the morning.
Aboard his MD Racing-run Yamaha, having ditched the Triumph he started the 2024 event on in class, Dunlop set off sixth on the road and took the lead on lap two of four on the run to the Ballaugh Bridge sector split.
From there, the Ulsterman eked out his lead and kicked back against a charge from Davey Todd across the third tour.
The 35-year-old, who made his TT debut in 2007, came under no pressure to secure his bit of history by 8.574s.
Michael Dunlop is the last of the racing Dunlop dynasty, with Joey dying in an accident weeks after his 26th TT win in 2000. Michael’s father Robert was killed at the North West 200 in 2008, while his younger brother William died at Skerries in 2018.
Paul Jordan set off at number one on the road aboard his Jackson Racing Honda, but it was official Honda rider Dean Harrison who led on corrected time on the run to the first sector split at Glen Helen.
Harrison was 0.080s clear of Todd's Powertoolmate Ducati, with Dunlop 0.764s behind in third.
Todd took the lead on his Ducati – the only representative for the Italian marque in any class this year – at Ballaugh Bridge by 0.257s from Harrison, while Dunlop slid 1.2s adrift.
Harrison took the lead back at Ramsey by 0.639s and would sit 1.2s clear at Glen Helen on lap two, as Dunlop picked up his pace to overhaul Todd for second.
At Ballaugh, Dunlop had taken a 0.5s lead from Harrison, before Todd jumped the Honda rider at Ramsey.
Dunlop’s lead was 4.5s at the Grandstand start/finish section as he came in for the only fuel stop of the race.
That lead swelled by a second at Glen Helen on lap three, though Todd would manage to get it down to 3.9s at the Bungalow split on the mountain.
But Dunlop turned up the wick over the remainder of the lap to pull out his advantage to five seconds to begin his final tour and continued to extended that through to the chequered flag.
Todd kicked off TT 2024 with his second career podium, while Harrison completed the rostrum in third, 22.381s behind the Ducati rider.
James Hillier was fourth on his Bournemouth Racing Kawasaki, while James Hind took a fine fifth on the North Lincs Components Suzuki.
Josh Brookes was sixth on the Russell Racing Yamaha, while there were retirements for Jamie Coward and Connor Cummins.
Peter Hickman finished off the podium in the Supersport class for the first time since 2016 aboard his Trooper Triumph, though a transponder means his final finishing position hasn’t been registered yet.
