PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Tito Rabat and Zaqhwan Zaidi have been on track at Spain’s Motorland Aragón today for the first of the practice sessions making up the 2025 season’s tenth WorldSBK championship round.

The morning’s first free practice gave Rabat and Zaidi a first opportunity to start setting up their CBR1000RR-R machines to suit the Spanish track. Local rider Tito knows the circuit well, so was able to focus solely on identifying setup solutions, while rookie Zaqhwan refamiliarised himself with a track he hasn’t visited for ten years. Both worked methodically with their respective technicians, with Rabat in particular making good progress in the final stages. A fastest time of 1’50.879 for Rabat put him in temporary sixteenth position. Finishing the session with a time of 1’53.375, which put him twenty-second on the timesheets.

A few hours later, and despite much warmer conditions, Rabat was able to perform in a similar way. Finding an extra couple of tenths with respect to the morning, Tito’s best of 1’50.632 saw him round out Friday in nineteenth place. Teammate Zaidi continued to build confidence and feeling with both bike and track in preparation for the weekend’s races. Satisfied with the day’s progress, the Malaysian placed twenty-third with a 1’53.264.

Tito Rabat #53

“We made a good start in FP1, which I felt went well. In FP2 we were able to maintain the same kind of pace, despite different conditions, which was good. I know it’s hard at this track, especially in the afternoon, and things went better than expected today, to be honest. It’s also good to see that we’re not so far from the group, so that makes us confident as a team heading into the weekend.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“It’s great to be riding here at Aragón again; it’s been ten years since I was last here! We’ve worked to try and find some good solutions, as I need to build the feeling with the bike. There are many high-speed turns here, so we need to have good confidence with the bike. I believe I can do more than I have today, and my lap times were not so bad this afternoon; I’m pleased with the progress made from one session to the next. I will try my best to do more as we work to find a good setup for qualifying tomorrow.”