Round four of the 2025 Superbike World Championship is now underway at the Cremona Circuit in Italy, where the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has completed Friday’s free practices with riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi.

The first of the weekend’s three practices ran in dry conditions, which meant that the riders and their technicians good hit the ground running as they began to prepare their CBR1000RR-R machines. Mackenzie worked hard with his team to adapt his bike to the track, placing a provisional twenty-first with a time of 1’31.083 and feeling fairly confident about the technical changes made. Team-mate Zaidi was seeing the Italian track for the first time during this FP1 and so used the 40-minute phase to familiarize himself with the layout. A best of 1’33.437 put him twenty-third at the session’s end.

Mackenzie made a positive start to free practice 2, the Brit almost immediately improving on his FP1 time. A constructive session saw the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider continue to up the pace. Having made a few modifications to the electronics in preparation for the weekend’s long races, Tarran placed twentieth in the day’s aggregate standings, his best of the afternoon - a 1’30.542 – already a full half second quicker than his FP1 time. On the other side of the garage, rookie Zaidi continued to concentrate on his own performance, just as he has done every weekend so far. Seeking consistent improvement from one session to the next, Zaqhwan shaved six tenths off his best of FP1, recording a fastest time of 1’32.800 as he builds confidence around this latest new track.

The Superpole qualifying session and SBK race 1 await the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team on Saturday.

Tarran Mackenzie

“Today was quite positive, especially in FP2. I felt ok in FP1 too, but there were a couple of things I wasn’t so happy with. This afternoon we tried something with the electronics, which was definitely a good step on the older tyre; I set my best lap on maybe lap seventeen. So I’m happy with that, but when we went to put a new tyre in, I had a few moments and a few things weren’t working quite as I thought they would. I’m pleased with how the feeling was towards the end of the run, and we’ll try to take that positive into the weekend. If we can work to improve the front feeling, then I think we can be there.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi

“The track is great - I can say that I’m really enjoying Cremona Circuit! It’s difficult and short with many corners, but I feel quite comfortable, despite this being my first time here. I still have things to learn and need more mileage, but maybe in the hot conditions the riding comes a little easier, or at least I can enjoy it more. I’ve spoken to the team, and we have ideas as to what we need to adjust on the bike so that I can improve further. If we can find the right setup, I think I can do more, so tomorrow we’ll a few adjustments and I’ll try my best to achieve a good result.”