It says much for Alastair Seeley’s burning ambition to succeed at the North West 200 that the Relentless Suzuki by TAS rider was disappointed with two pole positions out of three.

The Carrickfergus ace will start from the front in both the Superstock and Supersport classes, but the sought-after Superbike honours evaded him.

Team boss Hector Neill revealed that the gremlins had hampered his man’s efforts, but was confident that these would be sorted out in time for race day tomorrow.

“There were mechanical problems with the bike and it's away now being rebuilt,” he revealed.

“I could see the disappointment in Alastair's eyes. We thought he was good for three pole positions. But the second row of the grid is good enough. I've always felt confident about our chances of winning here this year.”

Seeley consolidated his position as favourite for the Superstock race with a lap of 119.706mph, unofficially breaking the class lap record by three-10ths of a second, finishing the session less than a second ahead of Michael Dunlop at 119.310mph.

Completing the front row tomorrow will be Michael Rutter while Gary Johnson, William Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar complete row two for the six-lap race.

The Supersport final qualifying session saw Johnson, Bruce Anstey, Seeley and Michael Dunlop as the early pace setters, some four seconds faster than Tuesday evening’s times, before Seeley once again stamped his authority on the class with a time of 4mins 38.530secs, a speed of 115.937mph, to gain pole position ahead of Johnson (115.437mph, 1.2secs adrift) and Michael Dunlop (115.149mph).

Five seconds covered the top six with Anstey, William Dunlop and Guy Martin making up that elite group. Cameron Donald, fastest on Tuesday, was a first lap retirement.