The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tito Rabat and Zaqhwan Zaidi successfully closed the gap to the front with respect to previous rounds during the first of the weekend’s three WorldSBK races at Motorland Aragón.

Earlier in the day, the team was out for a final practice, the session allowing the riders to make some final changes to setup ahead of the subsequent qualifying session. Despite a track temperature of just 15°C, both Rabat (1’50.520) and Zaidi (1’52.809) put in their best practice times in this session.

Running on an already warmer track, the Superpole phase was particularly hard fought, with six riders improving on the previous lap record. During this 15-minute qualifying, Rabat put in an initial ‘49.5. After pitting to switch tyres, the local rider was able to shave off another couple of tenths to set a fastest time of 1’49.351 and qualify on row seven, in twentieth position, for Race 1. Teammate Zaidi improved on his initial reference by almost a second throughout the short session. The Malaysian rookie’s best, a 1’51.094, put him twenty-third, for a spot on the eighth row of the grid.

Race 1 ran according to schedule in dry, sunny conditions. Rabat made a spirited start, up to seventeenth almost immediately. Racing at his home track, the Spaniard was keen to do well but unfortunately lost contact with those ahead fairly early on, which meant that he found himself lapping alone for a good part of the race. Despite that, he was able to limit the gap to the front with respect to previous races. Having climbed to sixteenth in the latter stages, Rabat ultimately crossed the line seventeenth. Zaidi had a harder time sticking with the pack today, unable to find the same good feeling in the race that he had experienced in Superpole. The Malaysian nevertheless ran a faster race overall, focusing on consistency and working to understanding where he and team might be able to improve for tomorrow’s races. Zaidi completed the race P20.

Tito Rabat #53

“Today's race was tough, to be honest. We made a good start and were doing okay over the first few laps, but then had a few issues with the clutch, which slowed me down later on. Hopefully, we can sort that out for tomorrow, as I was happy over the first laps when I saw I could stick with the group. We just need to put it all together. The aim for tomorrow will be to try and improve a few things so that I can follow the group and have better feeling.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“I was happy with my Superpole performance, better than it has been on previous occasions, I think. Because I had good feeling in that session, we kept the bike more or less the same for Race 1 but for some reason the feeling was not so good, maybe because the conditions were warmer by the time the race started, I'm not sure. I tried to stick with the group at first but after I lost contact, I worked to understand the areas where we can improve, so that hopefully we can be more competitive in tomorrow's races. We'll keep working to find a little more."