David Jefferies won the opening big event at the Isle of Man TT meeting on Saturday.

Yorkshire man Jefferies, riding for the Hector Neill Suzuki team, became the first rider to beat the 18 minute barrier for a lap over the 36 mile circuit in winning the Formula One event.

Jefferies achieved the milestone on his second lap and his finishing time of one hour 50 minutes and five seconds was also two minutes and 10 seconds better than Steve Hislop's previous race record.

That was inspite of having serious technical problems in his closing 12 miles when he was only able to use third gear.

Archibald retires

The Englishman's opening lap of 125.76 mph established an immediate lead and he wasn't seriously challenged in the remainder of the race.

Jefferies came in 40 seconds ahead of John McGuinness with Jim Moodie taking third place.

Northern Ireland rider Adrian Archibald battled for third place with Welshman Ian Lougher in the opening two laps but he then lost ground after stalling his machine in the pits.

He did restart but had to retire after the fourth circuit because of an exhaust problem.

Lougher took fourth place ahead of Jason Griffiths and Iain Duffus while Richard Britton was top Irishman in seventh.