The 2025 Supersport World Championship will kick off this weekend (21-23 February) at the same Australian track, which meant that this week’s tests were particularly important for riders Kaito Toba and category rookie Syarifuddin Azman.

On track for the first session on Monday morning, Japanese rider Toba refamiliarized himself with the Australian circuit before turning his attentions to the setup of his CBR600RR. A productive opening session was unfortunately followed by a crash during the afternoon, when the Japanese rider slipped on oil left on track by another rider. Damage to his bike meant that he was unable to return to the track for the last half an hour. Having completed 47 laps on day one, the Japanese rider put in another 56 laps on Tuesday, making consistent and very encouraging progress with each exit he made.

On the other side of the garage, Azman used this valuable track time to start understanding his CBR600RR. Working with his new team for the first time, the Malaysian was able to complete 18 laps on Monday afternoon. Though he has previous knowledge of the track, Syarifuddin has no experience of riding a Supersport bike and so faces a steep learning curve this week. Back on track on Tuesday morning, the WorldSSP rookie continued to work hard, despite the fact that the session was interrupted more than once following incidents for other riders. Putting in 43 laps over the course of this second and final test day, Azman feels better prepared for his next challenge, his very first WorldSSP race weekend.

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will return to work on Friday 21, when the first race weekend of the 2025 Supersport World Championship will begin at the Phillip Island Circuit. The track, located in the state of Victoria roughly 150km from Melbourne, measures 4.445 km in length and is made up of seven left-hand corners and five right-handers. The WorldSSP schedule remains unchanged from last season, with the riders taking part in practice and qualifying on Friday, followed by Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday. 

Kaito Toba

“I’m happy with how this test has gone and feel we’ve taken a good step with respect to where we were last year. We’ve made good progress throughout this week’s sessions, something we need to continue to do over the race weekend of course, but this is already a good start. I felt like I was quite consistent today and we’ve been running close to the top ten. We can still find a little more across every area, I think - I’d like to find maybe another 0.8 of a second ahead of the weekend’s races, so we’ll see what we can do during Friday’s practice. For now, I’m quite pleased.”

Syarifuddin Azman

“I’m enjoying riding the bike so far but still need to understand how to ride it effectively at this track. My crew chief and technicians are helping me to find the way and so I want to say a big thank you to them. We’ll analyse the data we’ve got so far and see what we can do on Friday. I know the Phillip Island track and last rode here a couple of years ago, but of course the Supersport bike is very different to bikes I’ve ridden here in the past. So, there’s a lot to learn but I relish the challenge.”

Track information:

Country: Australia
Name: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Length: 4.445 km
Pole position: left

Corners: 7 left-hand, 5 right-hand

SSP RECORDS: Best lap – Montella (Ducati) 1'31.271 (2024). Superpole – Huertas (Ducati) 1'31.407 (2024).

2024 SSP RESULTS: 

Race 1 - 1. Montella (Ducati); 2. Manzi (Yamaha); 3. Schroetter (MV Agusta)

Race 2 - 1. Montella (Ducati); 2. Schroetter (MV Agusta); 3. Huertas (Ducati)

Weekend schedule (CET+10): 

Friday

10.25 - 11.05 – SSP Timed Practice 1

14.55 - 15.35 – SSP Timed Practice 2

Saturday 

10.30 - 10.40 – SSP Warm-up

14.30 – SSP Race 1

Sunday

10.50 – 11.00 – SSP Warm-up

14.30 – SSP Race 2