Competing in the British WorldSBK round at Donington, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team continued to make progress on Saturday despite a disappointing race result for riders Tito Rabat and Ivo Lopes.

Prior to the race, a final free practice allowed Rabat and Lopes to make some final adjustments ahead of the Superpole qualifying. Riding the CBR1000RR-R for the first time, Spaniard Rabat was able to find almost another half second with respect to his best time of Friday, while Portuguese rider Lopes, who is seeing Donington for the first time this weekend, also improved slightly on his previous references.

The Superpole ran in dry conditions at 11am local time (CET-1). Both riders elected to make a brief first exit before returning to the pits for a tyre change. Heading back out with sufficient time to complete two laps, Rabat set a fastest time of 1’26.908, going almost one full second quicker than his previous best, while Lopes found another eight tenths with respect to practice, putting in a 1’28.438.

The qualifying results meant that Tito and Ivo lined up in twenty-third and twenty-fourth place on the grid for the first of the weekend’s 23-lap SBK races. Both riders worked hard during the opening laps to establish a rhythm, gaining ground in the early stages also as a result of crashes for several rivals. Nineteenth on lap four, Rabat was prevented from demonstrating his full potential when a turn 9 crash put paid to his hard work on lap five. Having lost contact with his teammate a few laps in, Portuguese rider Lopes was forced to run a solitary race, always tricky particularly considering that he has no previous race experience at this track. A valiant Ivo was nevertheless able to run a clean race and was lying sixteenth until the very last lap, when a technical problem unfortunately stopped him from reaching the line.

The duo will have another opportunity on Sunday, when they will compete in the ten-lap Superpole race and the weekend’s final long SBK race.

Tito Rabat #53

“We made a good start to the race, and I was able to stick with the group. I was getting into a good rhythm but then at one point I braked heading into turn 9 and suddenly lost the front. We need to check the data as it was an odd crash. It’s a shame and I feel bad for the team as this was only the first race, but we still have two more races so let’s see what we can do to make up for this tomorrow.”

Ivo Lopes #75

“The day didn’t start off badly, though I think I could have been a bit closer in qualifying. As for the race, it was difficult because I didn’t have the best feeling with the setting. We're going to see if we can find something that can make me feel a bit more comfortable tomorrow. But the last part of the race wasn’t bad, we were lying sixteenth and it was going well until a mechanical problem stopped me from finishing. I'm happy, but I know we can do more if the team and I continue to work hard.”