Saturday kicked off with the third and final practice, which ran in dry conditions. Substitute rider Ivo Lopes put together a solid session, finding a solution that allowed him to take a good eighth tenths off his best of Friday to set a 1'41.284. Tarran Mackenzie used the session to make a few further adjustments, taking a step at the end of the session to set a best of 1'41.893. 

Next up for the SBK riders was the Superpole qualifying phase. After making a brief first exit, Tarran returned to the garage to switch tyres. Back on track and pushing hard to set a fast lap time, the British rider improved on his best time of the weekend by well over a second, putting in a best of 1'40.488 to place twenty-third. On the other side of the garage, a small technical problem unfortunately caused Ivo to lose time mid-session. Returning to the track with just enough time to complete one fast lap, the Portuguese rider qualified twenty-sixth (in 1'41.164). 

The first of the weekend’s 20-lap races got underway at 2pm, with the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders lining up on the eighth and ninth rows of the grid. Tarran made up several positions off the line but unfortunately suffered a crash during the very first lap. Able to rejoin the race, the Brit returned to the track in twenty-fifth position. Knowing there was little he could do in terms of closing the gap to those immediately ahead and riding with a damaged handlebar, Tarran focused on completing the race and collecting more important data, ultimately crossing the line P24. Incidents for other riders meant that Lopes climbed from twenty-sixth to twenty-second over the course of lap one. Making up another position early, the Portuguese rider was able to maintain a consistent pace and hold twentieth for the best of the race. Though unable to stick with his closest rivals, Ivo focused on managing his race and crossed the line twentieth. With the data collected today, thePETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team is confident that it can do more in Sunday’s races, the last of this 2024 WorldSBK season. 

Tarran Mackenzie P24

“Qualifying went a bit better this morning, I’d say. As for the race, I made a good start and was quick through the first couple of corners but then I got caught up in a bit of a melee and went down on lap one. I was able to pick the bike back up and then just rode for the rest of the race as well as I could. The handlebar was a bit bent, but I decided to stay out and clock up some more miles and understanding ahead of tomorrow’s race and next week’s test. So not the best race but at least we can carry something forward into tomorrow’s races.” 

Ivo Lopes P20

“I felt that FP3 was useful as I was able to understand more about the bike, so definitely a constructive session. Superpole was more difficult because the bike stopped on lap one and then we only had time to make one fast lap at the end. I was pushing but could only do so much. In the race I was short on grip, and this made it difficult for me to stick with those ahead. I did my best and completed the race but now I want to work with the team to see if we can improve the setting for tomorrow races. I understand the bike more now that I've done a few races in a row, but we need to find another half a second a lap at least to be more competitive.”