Round nine of the 2025 Superbike World Championship is now in play at the historic French circuit of Nevers Magny-Cours. 

On Friday morning, PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Tito Rabat and Zaqhwan Zaidi headed out onto a dry track for the weekend’s first free practice. Taking time to refamiliarize himself with the French track, Rabat made gradual progress in this opening session. Able to find a little more in the final stages, the Spaniard set a fastest time of 1’38.126 to place eighteenth. Teammate Zaidi took the time to learn yet another new track, working step by step to find a comfortable and effective setup. The Malaysian rookie rounded out FP1 with a time of 1’41.822.

Back out for FP2 later in the day, the two riders again enjoyed dry albeit cool, cloudy conditions. Both riders continued to work hard to find an effective setup for their CBR1000RR-R machines around the French track. Able to shave a few tenths off his best of FP1, Tito placed twenty-first with a time of 1’37.869. Taking almost two seconds off his earlier time, Zaidi rounded out the day behind his team-mate in twenty-third position (1’39.922).

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back out tomorrow for one last practice session, followed by the Superpole qualifying, and the first of the weekend’s 21-lap races.

Tito Rabat #53

“We struggled a little today. We started well this morning but then in the afternoon’s session, we found we were losing too much time in acceleration, something we need to solve for tomorrow. I was happy about this morning because it had been a long time since we’d ridden but we nevertheless achieved good lap times and a good position. The problems arose in FP2, but we’ll work hard to sort those out tomorrow.”

 Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“I think we made good progress in today’s two practice sessions. First, I need to learn the layout, which I’m starting to understand lap by lap. I feel I’ve improved more today than I did on day one at the last round, so that leaves me positive. And we also have a good direction to follow for tomorrow; let’s see what we can do in Superpole and Race 1. A big thanks to the team for all their hard work, and now we look forward to Saturday.”