Competing in the second World Supersport round at the Portimao circuit in Portugal, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team took part in today’s free practice and qualifying session with riders Kaito Toba and Syarifuddin Azman.

Warm, sunny conditions facilitated the team’s work during morning practice, with both Toba and Azman able to make the most of the 40-minute session. Working hard with their respective teams to find a setup solution to suit the challenging Portuguese track, Toba was lying twenty-fifth by the end of this initial phase (1’46.513), while rookie Azman placed thirtieth (1’47.663). The Supersport field has only one practice session, meaning that attention immediately turned to preparing for the afternoon’s qualifying session.

The SSP Superpole ran in the early afternoon in dry conditions. Toba’s session got off to an unlucky start, in that he was caught up in a Turn 4 crash with another rider in the opening stages. The Japanese rider made a quick pitstop so that his technicians could assess any damage to the bike and was able to return to the track with twenty minutes still on the clock. Making good progress during the final stages, his best time – a 1’45.284 set in the final minute – saw him round out the session in twenty-third position, which translates into a eighth-row start for Saturday’s race 1. Team-mate Azman took a good step during this qualifying session, quickly improving on his earlier time by well over a second. Continuing to push and make the most of every last minute of this all-important phase, the Malaysian set a fastest reference of 1’46.374, which was enough to secure him a spot on the tenth row of the grid.

ThePETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back on track tomorrow for the first of the weekend’s 17-lap Supersport races, which is scheduled to run at 12.35pm local time (CET-1).

Kaito Toba #27

“It’s been a challenging day to say the least. We lost quite a bit of time in the garage this morning while making some adjustments to the bike. Since we didn’t test here, we have work to do in terms of setup and the limited time on track doesn’t help. In Superpole I crashed because of a rider that stopped right on the line. I was lucky not to get hurt and returned as quickly as possible to the pits, where the guys tried their best to fix the bike. We have a lot of work to do, but I will try my best tomorrow to close the gap.”

Syarifuddin Azman #63

“I felt much better on the bike in today’s practice and Superpole. The team made a few changes to the bike, and these have helped me to feel a lot more confident on the bike with respect to the last round. So, I’m really happy with today’s progress but we’ll continue to work this evening and in tomorrow’s warm-up to prepare for the first race. A big thanks to the team for all their hard work; I’m ready to right tomorrow.”