Taking part in the first round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi were on track this morning for a final free practice. Slightly cooler track conditions in the early morning meant that both riders were soon able to improve on their respective best times of Friday. Mackenzie ducked under 1’31 for the first time to set a fastest time of 1’30.900 while SBK rookie Zaidi continued on his own personal growth path, taking another eight tenths of his previous best to put in a 1’34.679.

The first Superpole qualifying session of this new season got underway at 1pm local time, with temperatures already hotting up with respect to Friday (air 30°C, track 45°C). The session began as scheduled but was interrupted with a red flag just four minutes in following an incident for another rider. Once the session resumed a short time later, Mackenzie and Zaidi did their best to complete a fast, clean lap. The British rider set a fastest time of 1’31.830 in the final minutes, a result that saw him qualify twenty-first for Race 1. WorldSBK rookie Zaidi tackled his first ever Superpole session today. The Malaysian rider is tasked with learning a new track, a new bike and new tyres this weekend, which all makes for an understandably steep learning curve. Back on track following the red flag interruption, Zaqhwan set a best of 1’34.445. Having not quite managed to set a valid qualification time, Zaidi is unfortunately not permitted to compete in this weekend’s races.

The first full-length Superbike race ran later in very hot conditions in the afternoon (air 36°C, track 55°C), over a distance of 20 laps and with teams obliged to execute a mid-race tyre change. From the seventh row of the grid, Tarran made inroads over the first five laps, gradually moving up to seventeenth position. Sixteenth when he came into the pits for the mandatory tyre change on lap ten, the Brit worked hard to consolidate this position once back on track. Crossing the line sixteenth and having collated valuable data during the course of this inaugural race, Mackenzie is now hungry for more in Sunday’s races.

Championship rookie Zaidi, the victim of a crash in difficult wet conditions earlier in the week, was unable to benefit from the official SBK test sessions held on Monday and Tuesday, which meant that he only had Friday and Saturday's practice sessions in which to learn. The Malaysian rider steadily built confidence with the bike and improved his performance step by step over the course of the three practices but does not yet possess the required level of confidence to compete in the races. To ensure that he continues to progress, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team - focused on supporting promising talents like Zaidi so that they can gain valuable experience and grow at world level – will try to arrange a test session, to allow the rider to learn and prepare ahead of the second round of the season, scheduled to take place on 28-30 March.

Tarran Mackenzie

“It was a difficult race today in which I didn’t feel like I had the confidence to be able to push, and I didn’t want to risk any accidents. I felt a little better in FP3 this morning but then began to struggle more once the temperatures started to rise in qualifying, and then over race distance. Hopefully we can find something more for tomorrow’s races.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi

“This isn’t the lap time I expected and for sure I can be quicker, but I need time - time to understand the new bike, new tyres... The Superpole format is also a fresh challenge for me, with only the time to complete a couple of fast laps. I have made progress in each session, which is promising, just not enough progress yet. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t line up for the races of course, in what is my first championship round, but I will do my best to keep focus and work hard. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the SBK experience so far, challenging against riders who for me are all champions. The level of competition is very high here and I must accept that it will take time and effort to adapt and get to where we want to be. I just have to keep working to improve my riding, up my training and prepare as well as I can for the next round, where the plan is to continue to make progress.”