Toba and Pawi completed a ten-minute warm-up mid-morning, using the time to make final preparations for the afternoon’s race. Like the warm-up, Race 1 ran in dry, sunny conditions and got underway as scheduled at 3.15pm local time (CET). Thanks to their results in Friday’s Superpole, Toba and Pawi lined up on the sixth and tenth row of the grid respectively, in nineteenth and thirtieth position. 

When the lights went out on this 20-lapper, Kaito got away well from seventeenth, holding that position through the first corners. Unfortunately, an incident at turn 10 involving Toba and three other competitors meant that the Japanese rider’s race was over before he had even completed one full lap, a pity considering he clearly had the pace to score points today. Things went no better for team-mate Pawi sadly, who returned to the garage almost immediately, citing a technical issue. Although the Malaysian attempted to rejoin the race, he eventually retired on lap eight. 

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will now focus on preparing as well as possible for Sunday’s Race 2, when Toba and Pawi will do their best to make up for today’s unfortunate outcome. 

 Kaito Toba DNF

“Our race ended way too soon today. I started off well and immediately pushed to move closer to the points zone. Unfortunately, though I was taken out by some other riders when they crashed out soon after. That was the end of the race for me today, and I’m very disappointed because we had decent pace. We had the potential to reach the top ten this time, and that chance was taken away from us. We can only try again tomorrow and hope for a better outcome.” 

 Khairul Idham Pawi DNF

“Unfortunately, as soon as the race started, I realized I had an electronics issue and so I came into the garage to sort that. I returned to the track but the problem returned and so I eventually came back in and retired from the race on lap eight. I’m disappointed but hopefully we can make up for this tomorrow.”