The sixth Supersport World Championship round at Italy’s Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ has now concluded for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team but did not live up to expectation for riders Kaito Toba and Syarifuddin Azman. After a short morning warm-up, teams prepared for the weekend’s second and final 18-lap race. Race 2 ran in similarly high temperatures to Saturday’s race, meaning that the WorldSSP riders were tasked with managing the tyres on an extremely hot track.

From rows ten and eleven, Toba and Azman both made a good start, part of a group of five or six riders battling hard to maintain contact with those ahead. The duo was lying twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth a couple of laps into this 18-lapper, but while the Japanese rider continued to make progress throughout the first half of the race, Malaysian rookie Azman struggled to keep pace with the group and lost a little ground. Toba pushed to close in on the top twenty, moving up into eighteenth on lap ten. Unfortunately, the Japanese rider’s hard work over the first part of the race was nullified on lap thirteen, when he suffered a crash at turn 14. The incident caused the race to be red-flagged, and it was not restarted considering that the field had completed more than two thirds of race distance. This meant that Azman crossed the line twenty-third.

Toba was subsequently seen by doctors at the circuit medical centre and diagnosed with a lower back contusion. As the championship reaches the mid-way point, Toba lies twenty-fourth in the standings with ten points, while rookie Azman is yet to score. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will now regroup and prepare for round seven, scheduled to take place at the Donington Park circuit in the UK on 11-13 July.

Kaito Toba #27

“In today’s warm up we took a step in the right direction. With yesterday’s data we were able to work on the setting, and there was overall improvement which gave me more confidence and allowed me to push more. In the race I started my comeback from the back of the grid and things were going fairly well. But then at turn 14 with five laps to go, a gear issue resulted in a high side. I hit the ground hard but was fortunately not injured. I’m thankful to the medical staff at the circuit for their prompt assistance and I’m glad I could walk away from the crash.”

Syarifuddin Azman #63

“The team made a change to my bike ahead of today’s warm-up and I already felt more comfortable in that short session. During the race, I felt quite confident on the bike, and so I want to thank the whole team for all their hard work. The result is not what we want of course, but I will continue to try my best at the next round where hopefully we can take another step.”