First up for the WorldSSP field on Friday was the free practice, a session in which both Toba and Pawi made a strong start. Working methodically with their respective technicians, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders made constant progress aboard their CBR600RR machines. While Toba placed an encouraging sixteenth with a time of 1’43.863, Pawi finished just a few hundredths of a second behind, eighteenth with a best of 1’43.891. 

Mid-afternoon the team returned to the track for Superpole. Both riders were able to work well and set a series of interesting lap times, improving significantly with respect to their times in practice. A best of 1’42.966 for Toba was enough for the Japanese rider to secure sixteenth position, while half a second behind him, Pawi placed twentieth with a 1’43.491. A positive result for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team, with both riders qualifying inside the top twenty together for the first time. 

Kaito Toba P16

“Overall, it’s been a productive day. In the morning, we had a couple of ideas for the setting and so we used the free practice mainly to focus on that. In the afternoon we worked hard to close the gap to the front guys. Eventually we managed to get within one second from the fastest guy on track, which is clear confirmation that all the work we’ve put in during the year is paying off. I’m very thankful to the team and to Honda for this. We’re left with a couple of questions regarding the engine brake, and we also need to limit the sliding a little ahead of tomorrow’s race, so we’ll use the warm-up to review those aspects.” 

Khairul Idham Pawi P20

“Things didn’t go to badly today and we’ve been able to further close the gap to the front with respect to the last round. We made a couple of small changes before Superpole to try to find better rear grip and front feeling and the bike already felt better in the afternoon. In terms of pace, we’ve improved on where we were here at Jerez last year, but everyone’s improving round by round so it’s not easy. Hopefully tomorrow I can run a good race anyway and try to take some points.”