The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team is at Portugal’s Estoril Circuit with Tito Rabat and substitute rider Ivo Lopes for round eleven of the 2025 Superbike World Championship.

The race weekend began with a first free practice on Friday morning, a session that ran in dry, sunny conditions. Rabat looked strong as FP1 got underway, the Spaniard soon setting a series of interesting lap times. Making a few setup changes along the way, Tito made consistent progress from start to finish. His best reference of this first phase - a 1’37.350 - was enough to see him place fourteenth at the session’s end. Competing at his home track, a determined Lopes is keen to do well this weekend. Doing his best to exploit this first practice, the local rider worked to get back into the rhythm of riding the CBR100RR-R, having not competed in WorldSBK since the Donington Park round. Ivo was able to set a best of 1’39.882, which put him in temporary twenty-third position.

Back on track for FP2, Rabat quickly improved on his morning’s best to move inside the top ten. A crash unfortunately meant that he was unable to exploit the final part of the session, which meant this a fastest time of 1’37.109 set prior to the incident put Tito nineteenth in the day’s aggregate standings. The Spaniard would undoubtedly have been able to do more had he been able to return to the track following the crash, the rider concluding just eight tenths from third place despite the incident. Lopes was also able to up the pace this afternoon, the home rider taking more than one second off his morning’s best. Working with his technicians to find a technical setup to suit both the track and his riding style, Ivo set a best of 1’38.792, with which he closed Friday in twenty-fourth place.

Tito Rabat #53

“We started strong today, I was feeling good both this morning in FP1 and then at the start of FP2. I was pushing hard this afternoon when unluckily I crashed. It was a shame because I’m sure we could have achieved a really good result. Fortunately, I’m not hurt, so now we’ll reset for tomorrow and try our best to do a good job – I think we can do it.”

Ivo Lopes #75

“It's great to be back with the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team again. We made progress today, though I was perhaps hoping for more. We know where we want to work tomorrow, so that’s good and we’ll try to make the most of FP3 so that we’re in a good position going into the Superpole. Just as we did the last time I was here in WorldSBK, the plan is to keep working hard and improve each time we go out.”