The trio took to the track for the first time this morning, doing their best to make the most of free practice. Having taken a good step during practice at the latest Cremona round, Toba built on that performance, positioning mid-field already during the early stages of FP1. The Japanese rider rounded out the session in twentieth place with a time of 1’55.025 and could have done more had he not suffered an innocuous crash mid-session. Pawi worked hard with his technicians to start setting up his CBR600RR to suit the track, making gradual progress throughout the session. With a fastest time of 1’56.492, Khairul positioned thirtieth. Taking part in his first ever WorldSSP session, Hakeem focused on getting to grips with the bike, track and tyres, with a lot to learn in a very short time frame. The Malaysian’s best was a 1’58.381, with which he closed in thirty-fourth position. 

The Superpole qualifying session ran in dry but very windy conditions on Friday afternoon. With forty minutes in which to complete the cleanest possible flying lap, all three PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders worked hard to secure a strong grid position for the weekend’s races. With respect to practice, Toba had a little more difficulty finding sufficient pace but was able to do so in the final seconds of this all-important session. A best time of 1’54.305 meant that the Japanese rider qualified inside the top twenty, in nineteenth place today. Both Pawi and Hakeem made progress with respect to the morning’s practice, improving on their earlier times as they gradually built confidence around the track. A 1’55.392 for Khairul meant that he placed P27, while Azroy qualified thirty-second with a 1’57.737.  

Kaito Toba P19 

“We made quite a good start in this morning’s practice, closing the gap to the fastest guys by mid-session. I had a crash at the just as I was improving my personal best, but the time on track gave us enough data to analyse ahead of the qualifying. In the Superpole we worked to improve my front-end feeling. We’re still not there, and we’ll have to review what we can do to take another further step in tomorrow’s warm-up. My position is not the best so far, but the gap from pole is quite tight. We have room to improve and will do our best to do just that tomorrow.” 

Khairul Idham Pawi P27 

“This morning, I had trouble finding feeling with the front end and didn’t have much confidence in that regard. We made a change to the front fork for qualifying and the feeling improved, but we’re still lacking something there. Let’s see if we can do more tomorrow anyway – it would be great if we could target the points zone.”  

Azroy Hakeem P32 

“There’s a lot to learn, as this is my first time at this track and although I know the bike, it’s totally different with Pirelli tyres, so that all makes it hard to adapt quickly. I improved a little between practice and Superpole though, so hopefully we can take another step tomorrow in warm-up to close the gap and be ready for the first race.”