The weekend began with a 40-minute free practice, which was red-flagged after only a few minutes following a crash for another rider. Once the session resumed, Toba and Azman quickly got to work with their respective technicians. While the Japanese rider refamiliarized himself with the Cremona layout, Malaysian rookie Azman was tasked with learning another new track as quickly as possible. After struggling with arm pump during the Assen round, he has also undergone surgery since then and was passed fit to compete by the circuit doctors prior to FP1. Making the most of the dry, sunny conditions, Kaito was lying twenty-seventh (1’34.156) by the session’s end, while Supersport ‘apprentice’ Syarifuddin placed thirty-fourth (1.36’612).

The 40-minute Superpole got underway only a couple of hours later. Back on track in much hotter conditions (air temp. 31°C, track temp. 48°C), Toba soon lapped a second quicker than he had during morning practice. Making a few modifications to his CBR600RR, the Japanese rider was able to qualify eighteenth thanks to a fastest time of 1’32.743. Azman made impressive progress with respect to FP1, particularly considering this is his first visit to the track. Taking almost two seconds off his earlier time, the Malaysian recorded a 1’34.775, qualifying thirty-second for the weekend’s two 20-lap races, the first of which will run on Saturday afternoon.

Kaito Toba

“We’ve had quite a productive day here in Cremona. We didn’t have chance to test here beforehand, but already in free practice we were already able to start working in the right direction. We didn’t go for a fast lap in the morning, and focused instead on the feeling on track. For the Superpole, we made a few adjustments that boosted my confidence, which helped me to push for hot laps. We do have some minor points that we can still improve, but we’ve brought our CBR to within a second of the fastest guy, which is not too bad. We’ll use tomorrow’s warmup to assess whether we can make another step.”

Syarifuddin Azman

“I’m pleased to be here at Cremona; it’s my first time at what is a really difficult track. My arm’s a lot better after the surgery too, so that’s important. As for today, during the practice, I worked to learn the track and understand how the bike works here. It was tough in the Superpole, also in these hot conditions, but I did my best and hope we can continue to improve tomorrow and run a good race 1.”