Michael Dunlop says he “blew a hole in the tyre” on t🐭he final lap of the 2025 Isle of Man TT Superbike race, which stopped him from overhauling winner Davey Todd.

The TT record holder endured a tricky practice week on his new BMW Superbik𓄧e machine, but still came into the opening race of the 2025 event on Monday as a main favourite.

Dunlop pushed eventual winner Todd hard across the four-lap conte🐠st, getting the 8TEN BMW rider’s lead down to as low as 0.26🍸9s at the start of the final tour.

Expecting a “second breath” on the final lap to push Todd to the finish line, 🔜Dunlop says he suffered an issue with his rear tyre♛ and “lost all grip”.

He☂ also admits his pass on the road of Honda’s Dean Harrison didn’t co𝓰me at “the right place” which meant he “lost all momentum” at that section.

Dropping 2.271s behind Todd oꦉn corrected time at this point, Dunlop produced a 135.416mph to end up just 1.296s adrift at the chequered flag.

Asked by TT+ if he was happy with a seco꧃nd-place, Dunlop said: “Not really. It was hard. I was really down on the first lap and then started to claw my way bac🥀k again.

“Then on the last lap I felt good, but I caught Dean at th𝓀e wrong𝄹 place and just started dropping seconds.

“Then we blew a hole in the tyre, the tyre’s destroye🗹d, so we lost all grip, which is highly disappointing because I knew on the last lap we co🅺uld have a bit of a second breath and have another go.

“But it’s just the way it is. I’m not sure what we can do to cure the issue we’ve now ♓got.

“But it was a tough race, I knew it was going to be, but the boys have don♍e a good job.

“We’ve gone from having really, real💧ly awful lap times in pra🎐ctice where we struggled, to now be doing 40 seconds a lap quicker.

“So, weꦍ’ve made a new step. We now need to get to change that balance again for Saturday, but the lack of track time hasn’t helped.

“It’s probably happening for the other bꦉoys because they’re here on bikes technically the same as last year, so we’ve been strugglin♋g a little bit this week.

“But thanks to🐲 t🃏he boys we got a bit of a push on there and got a wee bit closer.

𝓀“I just got caught with Dean. I took too long to pass hi☂m somewhere and when I did pass him it didn’t really suit where I did pass him.

“It wasn’t the right place and I lost all mo✨mentum. But it’s just the way it goes.”

Dunlop🍨 later claimed a 30th TT victory in the three-lap Supersport race on his☂ first start on the island on his Ducati Panigale V2.