Entered as a wildcard, the PETRONAS MIE Racing RW Team has successfully concluded the weekend’s Moto2 World Championship round at the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, albeit with only one rider. An unfortunate incident for Khairul Idham Pawi (#89) during Saturday’s qualifying left him with fractures that ruled him out of Sunday’s action, meaning that Muhammad Helmi Azman (#55) was the team’s sole representative on track today.

After qualifying twenty-ninth for the Moto2 race, the 24-year-old Malaysian was determined to put in a strong performance in front of his home crowd. Taking to the tenth row of the grid as he awaited lights out at 1.15pm local time (CET+7), the local rider made a good start to the race, which ran in hot, dry conditions (air temp. 35°C, track temp. 58°C). Straight up to twenty-fifth through the first corners, the Malaysian climbed to twenty-first on lap two, a position he held until lap six. Conceding one position, Helmi continued to battle as part of a small group of riders for the remainder of the race. Back up into twenty-first at the mid-race point, the local rider only began to lose ground in the final stages. This challenging 17-lapper ultimately brought a twenty-third-place finish for wildcard Azman at his home round, the rider gaining important experience and doing well to complete a race that saw various incidents for his rivals.

Muhammad Helmi Azman #55

“I made a good start and tried to stick with the group when the race got underway. I was close to P20 for a good while, working hard to keep the pace, follow my closest rivals and avoid any mistakes. After maybe ten or twelve laps, my tyre began to drop and physically I also began to feel a bit tired. It’s never going to be easy fighting against world championship riders, of course, but I did my best and am happy because I improved both the pace and lap times compared to last year’s wildcard appearance. Now I will keep working for the future, and just want to say a big thank you to PETRONAS and all the sponsors for giving me this opportunity.”