With Adam Norrodin having been ruled unfit to continue with the Aragón weekend, Tarran Mackenzie was the only PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider to take to the track for this morning’s third and final free practice. A little sore after crashing during Friday’s FP2, he and his technicians made some final changes to the setup of their CBR1000RR-R ahead of qualifying. Having further improved on his fastest time (1’51.295), Mackenzie readied himself for Superpole, which ran at 11am CET. Setting a 1’51.424 during his first exit, the Brit then returned to the garage to make a tyre change. His second exit brought improvement, with Tarran able to take off almost another second (1’50.591) to qualify twenty-first for the weekend’s first SBK race. 

Lining up on row seven of the grid for the afternoon’s 18-lap race, Mackenzie got away well when the lights went out, but the race was brought to an almost immediate halt with a red flag after an incident for another rider left dirt on track. The race was restarted a short time later and shortened to 17 laps. Tarran again made a strong start and was lying nineteenth one lap in. Despite striving to stick with those immediately ahead through the initial stages, he gradually lost contact with his closest rivals but was nevertheless able to run a relatively consistent race. Gaining a position mid-race, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider continued to push, closing in on the group ahead again before crossing the line eighteenth. 

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back on track on Sunday for the Superpole race and the second 18-lap Superbike race. 

Tarran Mackenzie 

“I made a small step in qualifying, with my riding more than anything else, and then we changed a few things with the electronics before the race. I was pretty consistent from start to finish, riding on my own for a good part of the race before I started to catch up towards the end. If I can be a little stronger at the start, it might make my race a bit easier and allow me to run closer to those in front. We know where we can improve, I think, and so we’ll see if we can make another step in warm-up tomorrow and then carry that into the two races.”