Early in the day, the two PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders were on track for a final free practice, followed by the all-important Superpole qualifying session. FP3 ran in cool, dry conditions which allowed almost the entire SBK field to improve on Friday’s references. Tarran and Ivo immediately lowered their times and then continued to make progress during the course of this brief 20-minute phase. Mackenzie put in a best of 1'30.560 in the closing stages to improve on his overall position, the British rider placing nineteenth in the combined standings. Although maintaining twenty-first place overall, Ivo did well to improve on his best of yesterday by well over a second, setting a 1'31.408. 

The Superpole unfortunately failed to bring the desired results. Although Mackenzie was able to put in his quickest lap of the weekend so far, he fell a little short of the kind of times he was aiming for, based on his performance over the practice sessions. A best of 1'30.243 put him in twenty-second position at the session’s end, while Lopes’ best, a 1’30.853, saw him qualify twenty-fifth, the Portuguese rider having shaved another six tenths of his earlier reference. 

The qualifying results meant that the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders lined up on the eighth and ninth rows of the grid for the 23-lap Superbike race that ran in the afternoon. Making a good start, Tarran was lying nineteenth. On lap nine, the Brit ran off track but was able to return to the track, albeit in last position. He continued to compete until lap sixteen, before electing to pit just minutes before the race was red-flagged (on lap seventeen), due to a lack of feeling. Ivo positioned twenty-fourth through the early stages but was able to climb to twentieth by the mid-race point. Doing his best to maintain a consistent pace and avoid any mistakes, the Portuguese rider completed the red-flagged race in nineteenth position. 

Ivo Lopes P19 

“Superpole went quite well, and I was able to do better than I had in practice as I’m gradually understanding more about the bike. So when I started the race, I had an idea as to the kind of lap times I thought I’d be able to set. But the feeling wasn’t quite the same in the race and there was less grip early on, maybe because the track temperature was higher. I did my best though, and was able to pick up my pace as the race went on. I’m just sorry there was a red flag as I think I might have been able to do a little more in the final stages but anyway, we finished the race and will now see what we can do to remedy the grip situation for tomorrow’s races.” 

Tarran Mackenzie DNF 

“Things went a little bit better in FP3 after we made a change to the bike last night. Superpole was good too, and I was able to set my quickest ever time around this track. I thought I might have been able to do a little more in terms of lap time, but I couldn’t quite put it together. For the race, we made another change which kind of worked, but the race was difficult. At one point I ran off track, which caused me to lose contact with the riders ahead, and after that I lost the rhythm. I just didn’t have good feeling and eventually elected to pit. Hopefully we can put together something better tomorrow.”