On track at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi have completed the first of the practice sessions making up the sixth Superbike World Championship round.

The day’s first practice got underway in hot and sunny conditions, affording the rider 45 precious minutes in which to start setting up their CBR1000RR-R machines to suit the track and the high temperatures. Both Mackenzie and Zaidi worked hard, using the data collected during the recent test as a reference. A 1’36.028 for Tarran and a 1’39.370 for Zaqhwan, who is riding at this track for the first time, saw the duo position twenty-first and twenty-third at the end of FP1.

Higher temperatures for the afternoon’s FP2 made it harder for the WorldSBK field to improve on their earlier references. PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider Mackenzie was nevertheless able to find another half a second on a track now measuring 45°C to record a best of 1’35.084, while Zaidi was able to lower his FP1 time by a good second and a half to set a best of 1’37.631. The riders will return to the track on Saturday morning for a final practice session in which to prepare for the subsequent Superpole and Race 1.

Tarran Mackenzie

“In FP1 I had similar feeling to the recent test and so I knew I wanted to change something for the second practice. We did this, returning to the bike we used at Assen, and it immediately felt different, of course, but gave me a little more of the feeling and confidence I was looking for. So that was good. It’s very hot and greasy out there and I was able to set a faster time than I did during testing, so quite a good Friday, in which we saw improvement. There’s still work to do but we’re a little closer so hopefully we can continue moving in this direction and have a better today tomorrow.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi

“I missed the recent test and everyone else is very fast of course. So today I tried to concentrate on learning the track and understanding the bike’s performance here, and we saw improvement with every exit. The final sector of the track is quite tricky though, so we need to find some more speed there. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow as we continue to make some adjustments to the bike. I want to say a big thank you to the team as they’ve done a good job today. We’ll keep working and see what we can do tomorrow.”