The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team is on track at Jerez, Spain for the final round of the 2025 Supersport World Championship with riders Kaito Toba and Syarifuddin Azman.

After making the most of the brief morning warm-up, Toba and Azman lined up on the sixth and ninth row of the grid for the weekend’s first 17-lap SSP race, based on their Superpole results of Friday.

Japanese rider Kaito was straight up into sixteenth, his sights firmly fixed on the points zone. After briefly battling Booth-Amos, Toba maintained a consistent pace through the central phase of the race to reduce a small gap that had opened up ahead of him. Lapping a little quicker than those immediately in front, Toba entered the points zone on lap ten. Climbing to fourteenth with two laps to go, Toba slipped one position on the final lap to place P15 and score one championship point. 

His Malaysian rookie teammate Syarifuddin lay twenty-eighth through the opening stages. Doing his best to lap cleanly and consistently, he held this position throughout the entire race, battling briefly with his closest rivals and gaining one position on the final lap to close P27.

Kaito Toba #27

“In the warmup we worked on the feeling on used tyres and checked durability. I want to thank the team for making sure the bike was in good order after yesterday’s crash; they worked until late and in this morning’s session we confirmed that everything was ready. In the race, I was fighting in the group that went all the way to the top ten in the initial stages. I was struggling through the fast corners as the bike was running wide, but I tried to keep a consistent pace. In the end we finished inside the points zone, which is not too bad. We’ll dig into the data from the test at the beginning of the season to see if we can find some ideas for tomorrow’s race and make a step forward.”

Syarifuddin Azman #63

“Today’s race was difficult as I was lacking feeling with the bike - I’m not sure why but it didn’t feel the same as it did in Superpole yesterday. I’ll keep working with the team to understand the reason and what we can do to move forward and improve. The team is working really hard to give me confidence, so we’ll work hard in warm-up tomorrow and can hopefully find something good for Race 2.”