The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi have now concluded the second WorldSBK Championship weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, with Sunday’s races bringing mixed fortunes.

Early in the day, the team used a short warm-up session to make final assessments ahead of the day’s Superpole race and second 20-lap Superbike race. The ten-lap Superpole sprint race got underway at 11am local time (CET-1) under sunny skies. From twentieth on the grid, Tarran was lying seventeenth through lap one but slipped a couple of positions over the course of the opening laps. As he worked to make up the lost ground, the British rider unfortunately suffered a crash on lap 6, at turn 13, and this incident left him unable to continue with his race. Unhurt and undeterred, Tarran immediately turned his attention to Race 2. Team-mate Zaidi, who is competing at the tricky Portimão circuit for the first time, progressed from twenty-third to twenty-first place. Struggling to keep contact with the group, he focused on running a consistent, albeit solitary race. Completing the race without mistakes and collecting more valuable data in the process, the Malaysian brought his bike home in twenty-first position.

Back on track in the early afternoon for the second and final 20-lap SBK race, Tarran again started from twentieth and Zaqhwan from twenty-second. Both held those positions early on, with Mackenzie able to up the pace as the race went on. Zaidi was focused on completing this full-length race after being unable to do so on Saturday. On lap ten, a crash for another rider meant that the race was brought to a halt with a red flag. With the race restarted a short time later and reduced to 11 laps, Tarran and Zaqhwan started eighteenth and nineteenth respectively. Each able to gain a position almost immediately, they were running a consistent race. Zaidi kept his head down, ultimately crossing the line in an encouraging sixteenth position, just outside the points zone. Mackenzie’s race was briefly interrupted when he crashed at Turn 3 on lap nine, but the tenacious Brit was able to rejoin and reach the finish line, in seventeenth position.

As round 2 draws to a close, Mackenzie lies twentieth in the championship standings having scored 2 points this weekend, while team-mate Zaidi is yet to score points. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back in action on 11-13 April, competing in the third WorldSBK championship round at the TT Circuit Assen in The Netherlands.

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“I think this was a positive race and I can say we’ve seen good progression over the weekend. I’m starting to better understand how to use the bike but it’s not easy putting it all together, with a new bike, tyres, track and everything. So, we need to keep working, for sure. I know I need to improve more of course, but we have definitely taken a step here and if we keep trying and stay focused, I think we can do more at Assen. A big thanks to the whole team for all their hard work here, and now we’ll prepare for Assen, our next challenge!”

Tarran Mackenzie #95

“We made a bit of a change to the bike after warm-up, going in a slightly different direction geometry-wise. That proved positive and the lap times were more consistent in the Superpole race. It’s quite a big change though, and unfortunately I caught myself out with it and crashed. We went in the same direction for race 2, and I felt quite good once the race restarted but I’m still trying to understand how to ride it, as I need to approach it a bit differently. I think it can be positive moving forward so this was kind of a test today. It was a bit frustrating to crash but that was part of the learning process this weekend. I’d have liked to have scored points again today but, like I say, I think what we tried today can be positive going forward.”