In addition to permanent entries Kaito Toba and Khairul Idham Pawi, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has also fielded wildcard Azroy Hakeem at Estoril. The trio took to the Portuguese track for a brief warm-up this morning, a session they used to make some final adjustments before the afternoon’s second and final race, though the ten-minute practice ran on a damp track which was less than ideal. 

Later in the day, the three riders set out to harness what they had learned in Saturday’s Race 1 as they took to the grid for Race 2, which ran in similarly dry conditions. From rows ten and eleven of the grid, Toba, Pawi and wildcard Hakeem were all determined to improve on their respective Race 1 results. A very strong start for Toba saw him make up nine positions through the first turns, the Japanese rider immediately up into sixteenth. Hunting down the rider immediately ahead, Kaito slipped to seventeenth for a time but continued to lap consistently until lap twelve, when a turn 9 crash unfortunately prevented him from pushing for the points zone. Toba nevertheless returned to the track and tried to continue with the race but was ultimately unable to cross the line. Pawi also made progress over the course of lap one, moving up to twenty-first from twenty-sixth on the grid. Gaining a further two positions through the early stages, Khairul held nineteenth for a time before climbing to seventeenth following incidents for other riders. Lapping with similar times to the rider immediately ahead, Pawi came within half a second of P16 but ultimately had to settle for P17 today. After suffering a technical issue on the grid, Hakeem was lying twenty-fifth on lap one. The problem caused him to pit soon after, but the rider was unable to return to the track, his race weekend ending there. 

With one round to go, Toba lies twenty-third in the general classification with 17 points, Pawi thirty-eighth with 2 points. The final WorldSSP championship round of the 2024 season will take place next weekend (18-20 October) at the Jerez Circuit in Spain. 

Kaito Toba DNF

“We had a dry warm up this morning and so had chance to gather some more data for the afternoon. As for the race, there were a few raindrops while we were on the grid, but luckily the track stayed dry. That rain might have affected the grip level though, as I was spinning quite a bit right from the start. I got away pretty well anyway and overtook quite a few riders on the first lap. I was soon fighting for the points zone but suffered some chattering into the chicane and was unable to save a crash there. It’s a shame because our pace was very competitive, and with a better starting position, we could have aimed for the top ten. We take the positives from this weekend anyway and will give it another go next week at Jerez.” 

Khairul Idham Pawi P17

“Today in Race 2 we improved the pace, but I was still short on rear grip. I hope we can improve this for the last Jerez round. We were able to close the gap to the front somewhat, but there’s still more to do. Let’s see what we can do next weekend in Spain.” 

Azroy Hakeem  DNF

“It was shame about race 2 because I had a technical problem with the bike and couldn’t continue. I’m disappointed to finish in this way but I’ve nevertheless learned a lot over the weekend and want to thank PETRONAS and MIE Racing for this opportunity. Let’s hope we can meet again.”