PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Tito Rabat and Zaqhwan Zaidi experienced ups and downs today as the tenth WorldSBK round drew to a close at Motorland Aragón.

After a short warm-up, the duo was ready for Sunday morning’s ten-lap Superpole Race. From nineteenth on the grid, Tito got off the line well but was almost immediately involved in a multi-rider incident at Turn 5. A blameless Rabat crashed as a result of another rider’s actions and was unable to rejoin the race but was fortunately unhurt. Over the course of this short sprint, rookie Zaqhwan progressed from twenty-second to nineteenth position. Just as he did in Saturday’s Race 1, Zaidi was able to complete another fast race, again reducing the gap to the front with respect to previous sprint races.

The afternoon’s 18-lap race rounded out the weekend’s SBK action at Aragon. Starting P20, Rabat held that position throughout the first half of the race. In a hard-fought race, the gaps quickly opened up, which prevented Tito from closing in on the rider ahead. The rider nevertheless kept his head down and focused on his pace, ultimately moving up to seventeenth, a position he held to the line. Zaidi made a good start from twenty-third and was working hard to maintain his pace. The Malaysian was unfortunately unable to complete the race, a Turn 9 crash putting paid to his hard work with six laps to go.

With just two rounds left to run, Rabat places twenty-fourth in the standings with 6 points and Zaidi twenty-sixth with the point he scored at Magny-Cours. The team will return to action over the weekend of 10-12 October at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal.

Tito Rabat #53

“Obviously I’m not happy about the Superpole race, as the crash was not my fault and it meant my race was over immediately. We made changes to try to improve something for today’s long race but unfortunately it felt tougher than in Race 1. We need to analyse the data to understand why. I tried to do my best anyway and continue to give 100%. Let’s see what we can do next time out at Estoril.” 

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“We’ve worked really hard and tried many things to find the best possible feeling. In the Superpole race I tried to keep good pace but didn’t really have the feeling I was looking for. We made a change for the long race and that definitely improved things, as I felt more comfortable and was better able to maintain the pace compared to Race 1. Maybe slightly lower temperatures also helped with the grip today. Unfortunately, I felt a bumping sensation and one point and crashed at  Turn 9; I tried to save it but it was not possible. I think we’ve made progress anyway, working well as a team and achieving the mini targets we’re setting each time. We’ll keep working and see what we can do next time.”