The weekend began with a 40-minute free practice. Unfortunately, the track was not in an ideal condition at first, still damp following rain overnight, which meant that most riders elected to wait a while before getting to work. Once the sun made an appearance, the surface soon began to dry, which allowed Kaito Toba and Khairul Idham Pawi to get started, working with their respective teams to start adapting the setup of their CBR600RR bikes to the Italian track. By the end of this session, Toba was lying nineteenth with a time of 1’34.226 and Pawi twenty-eighth, having set a best of 1’35.307. 

Mid-afternoon Toba and Pawi were back on track for qualifying. The 40-minute Superpole ran in full dry conditions, facilitating the work for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders. Toba was looking strong in the early stages and was running inside the top fifteen when a crash forced him back to the pits. Though unhurt, the Japanese rider lost valuable time, only able to return to the track for the final ten minutes. Despite the setback, Kaito was able to take another half second of his best time, a 1’32.642 moving him up to sixteenth in Friday’s aggregate standings. Despite improving on his earlier reference by a second and a half, Pawi had some difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the field today. A time of 1’33.842 saw him round out the day in thirtieth position overall. 

 Kaito Toba 

“It was a rather hectic day, but we managed to make the most of it. In the morning the track was partially wet, so it took time before we could put in any fast laps. By the end of the session the feeling with the bike was not so bad though, and we were able to put together some ideas for the Superpole. This afternoon we started off well, but I had a small crash and we lost some time in fixing the bike. The team did a great job, and we still managed to go out on track again for the last few minutes. I improved my time, and I have to say the classification is quite tight this weekend. I think we’re going to see some close battles tomorrow.” 

Khairul Idham Pawi 

“Today was not so easy and although I was able to improve between FP1 and qualifying, it was not enough to obtain a good grid position. I never really found the right feeling, which meant I struggled to complete a clean, fast lap. We’ll see what we can do in tomorrow’s first race, but I think it will be a tough one.”