Saturday evening's opening practice session for the 20⛄15 Isle of Man TT was ended prematurely as the weather closed in, but not before Ryan Farquhar set his fastest ever lap in the Lightweight sessiꦛon to head the solo times at 117.12mph.

The Lightweight machines completed a full sessi♑on although with rain beginning to fall at various parts of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson calledไ an early halt to proceedings, with the F2 Sidecars forced to wait until Monday evening for their first laps.

The evening commenced with a speed controlled lap for the solo and sidecar newcomers and TT rider liaison officer Richard 'Milky' Quayle - the 2002 Lightweight TT winner - led the solos away with Tom McHale, Robbin Harms and Franck Pe🌺tricola setting off behind him.

The second Rider Liaison Officer, John Barton, took out his Lightweight machine with Derek McGee, Dan Harrison and Geoffrey Vankoekelnbergh all s🐲imilarly mounted as they experienced their first taste of th𒀰e legendary course on closed roads.

Soon after it was the turn of the F2 S🃏idecar newcomers with seasoned regulars Roy Hanks/Kevin Perry, John Holden/Dan Sayle and Tony Baker/Fiona Baker-Milligan showing the 12 debutantes around including Terry O'Reilly/Aidan Browne, Alan W♔arden/Stuart Clark and Pascal Gassmann/Olivier Chabloz.

Also out on track was reigning British F1 Champion Sean Hegarty, who was making his first appearance at the TT since 1996. James Neave partnered him with their 675cc Triumph outfit certainly st🥃anding out.

At 6.57ꦫpm the first of🍸ficial session blasted off with the Lightweight machines powering down Glencrutchery Road, with Jamie Hamilton and Michael Sweeney having the honour of being first away.

They were followed in quick succession by Junior Manx Grand P🅷rix win⛄ner Andy Lawson and Dan Cooper, Michael Rutter and James Hillier and Ivan Lintin and Martin Jessopp.

All of the newcomers were soon back out on the course with Hillier quickest through the Sulby speed trap at 156mph on the Quattro Plant Kawasa♏ki ER6.

The first rider to complete the lap was Ulsterman H✅amilton on John Burrows' Kawasaki at 112.19mph swiftly followed by Sweeney (111.18mph) and Lintin on the RC Express Kawasaki, who briefly went quickest at 114.64mph.

Hillier a🔴lso lapped in excess of 112mph but the quicke🍒st two riders on the opening lap were Lincolnshire's Gary Johnson on the WK Bikes CF Moto machine and Farquhar on the SGS/KMR Kawasaki.

The duo had left the line together and lapped at 114.866mph and 114.827mph respectively with Lee Johnston, also riding a Kawasaki for Fa𓄧rquhar's SGS/KMR Kawasaki team, going well at 113.32mph.

On the second ❀lap Farquhar and Johnson were still circulating together and increased their speeds with the Ulster road racing star going to the top of the early leaderboard at 117.12mph to post his fastest ever lap on a Lightweight machine.

Johnson wasn't far behin💝d at 117.02mph with Lintin also improving to 116.60mph.

North West 200 Superstock race winner Johnston upped his pace to 115.40mph with Co𒐪oper slotting into fifth overall at 113.41mph.

Meanwhile, newcomer McGee was going well on his Lightweight Kawasaki at 107.60mph with McHale, continuing on his Superstock machine, also impressing at 108.12mp💛h.