The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team is taking part in the ninth Supersport World Championship round at the Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit in France. The squad is competing with three riders this weekend, with wildcard Ibrahim Norrodin joining full-time entries Kaito Toba and Syarifuddin Azman.

Looking to build on the progress made prior to the summer break, Japanese rider Toba made a confident start to the weekend on Friday morning. Making gradual progress throughout the free practice, Kaito put in a best of 1’42.161 in the last few minutes. This reference put him in twenty-third position heading into the subsequent Superpole. Making the most of the dry conditions during the morning’s practice session, Azman and wildcard entry Norrodin worked hard to build confidence around a track neither of them had seen before today. A 1’45.116 for Azman and a 1’47.681 for Norrodin saw the pair place thirty-second and thirty-third respectively at the end of the one and only Supersport practice.

The Superpole qualifying session ran in dry, cloudy conditions at 4pm local time (CET). An unfortunate crash for Toba in the first few minutes severely compromised his session. The Japanese rider was only able to return to the track for the final three minutes, after another rider caused a brief red flag. Making those final seconds count, Toba put in a 1’42.326, enough to secure him twenty-seventh place on the race 1 starting grid. Azman was quick to take a good step forward with respect to morning practice, moving up the timesheets with a time in the 1’43s. Continuing to build on his performance throughout the afternoon, Syarifuddin qualified thirtieth with a fastest time of 1’42.866. Picking up the pace to find more than three extra seconds during this all-important phase, wildcard Norrodin set a best of 1’44.434. Despite his best efforts, this lap time left him just outside the threshold for race qualification.

Kaito Toba #27

“This morning, we used the session to work on the set up of the bike. Although it felt like we were losing a little in acceleration compared to previous rounds, we did our best to adjust the bike and improve the feeling with the rear. We were meant to use the first part of Superpole to verify the changes, but we lost a lot of time due to a crash right at the beginning of the session. The team did their best to repair the bike, for which I am grateful, and we were able to make one final hot lap of the track before the chequered flag. We’ll try our best to make some progress tomorrow.”

Syarifuddin Azman #63

“This is another new track for me so practice was a bit of a struggle for me as I tried to understand both the layout and the bike around this track. In Superpole we made a change and this brought improvement in terms of our lap times. The team did a good job of making me more confident on the bike, so I’m pleased with that. Unfortunately, I made many mistakes on my flying lap, which I’m less happy about, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race 1 anyway.”

Ibrahim Norrodin #67

“A tough day 1 for me as this is my first time at this track and my first time working with a new crew. We need to get to know and understand each other, so it was quite difficult as we began FP1. In Superpole, I made good progress, finding another 3 seconds per lap but after the red flag we had a technical problem. We’ll work to sort that out ahead of tomorrow and hopefully have the potential to do more during the course of day two.”