SBK Practice

The opening round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship is a go for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team, on track for free practice with riders Mackenzie and Zaidi.

The SBK field was out on track for a first 40-minute practice at 11.45am local time (CET+10). Tarran Mackenzie worked with his technicians to identify a solid base setup for his CBR1000RR-R, also using the data collected during the official test that concluded at the same track just days ago. A best of 1’31.459 for the British rider saw him place twenty-second at the session’s end. Team-mate Zaqhwan Zaidi, who makes his WorldSBK debut this weekend, used these initial practices to get to grips with his new bike and a track he has never seen before now. Making his first laps around this tricky circuit during free practice, 17 laps in all, the Malaysian recorded a best reference of 1’37.039.

The duo was back in action during the afternoon, exploiting a second practice, which ran in hotter conditions with respect to FP1 (air temp. 21°C, track temp. 34°C). Both Mackenzie and Zaidi were able to make progress during the course of the session and improve on their best times of the morning. A quickest time of 1’31.445 for British rider Tarran meant that he consolidated twenty-second place, while rookie Zaqhwan was able to shave just over a second and a half off his earlier time to finish twenty-third with a 1’35.407.

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will return to the track tomorrow for a final practice, followed by the Superpole qualifying session and, at 4pm local time (CET+10), by the first of the weekend’s 20-lap races. As was the case in 2024, the weekend’s long races will take place under flag-to-flag conditions, which means that riders will have to pit and make a mandatory tyre change mid-race.

Tarran Mackenzie

“The first practice essentially saw us reset and restart on the back of what we’d done in testing. We had a plan to make changes to the front end of the bike for FP2, and I think these are of benefit, but I only got about six laps in as we had a small issue. Hopefully we can have a smooth day tomorrow and I can get some good laps under my belt. I think the setup changes we made for this afternoon can be positive for me, so the plan is to build on that and have a good first race.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi

“My first ever SBK practice was tough of course. I missed the test and so was straight out today trying to set fast times. But I believe we can improve lap by lap, and session by session. I’m not satisfied with the lap times yet, but there’s already been improvement between FP1 and FP2. I need to work to understand the bike, the tyres, my crew chief’s work method – many things – but if my team and I continue working well together then I’m confident we can take some good steps. Phillip Island is also new to me – it’s a unique track and not an easy one to interpret. So there’s a lot to learn, but I’ll get there. I need track time, and in the meantime, I am doing my best to enjoy the moment.”

SBK Race One

PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider Mackenzie sixteenth in the first race of the 2025 WorldSBK season. Unable to set a valid qualification time in the very limited track time available to him, category rookie Zaidi will not compete in the weekend’s races.

Taking part in the first round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi were on track this morning for a final free practice. Slightly cooler track conditions in the early morning meant that both riders were soon able to improve on their respective best times of Friday. Mackenzie ducked under 1’31 for the first time to set a fastest time of 1’30.900 while SBK rookie Zaidi continued on his own personal growth path, taking another eight tenths of his previous best to put in a 1’34.679.

The first Superpole qualifying session of this new season got underway at 1pm local time, with temperatures already hotting up with respect to Friday (air 30°C, track 45°C). The session began as scheduled but was interrupted with a red flag just four minutes in following an incident for another rider. Once the session resumed a short time later, Mackenzie and Zaidi did their best to complete a fast, clean lap. The British rider set a fastest time of 1’31.830 in the final minutes, a result that saw him qualify twenty-first for Race 1. WorldSBK rookie Zaidi tackled his first ever Superpole session today. The Malaysian rider is tasked with learning a new track, a new bike and new tyres this weekend, which all makes for an understandably steep learning curve. Back on track following the red flag interruption, Zaqhwan set a best of 1’34.445. Having not quite managed to set a valid qualification time, Zaidi is unfortunately not permitted to compete in this weekend’s races.

The first full-length Superbike race ran later in very hot conditions in the afternoon (air 36°C, track 55°C), over a distance of 20 laps and with teams obliged to execute a mid-race tyre change. From the seventh row of the grid, Tarran made inroads over the first five laps, gradually moving up to seventeenth position. Sixteenth when he came into the pits for the mandatory tyre change on lap ten, the Brit worked hard to consolidate this position once back on track. Crossing the line sixteenth and having collated valuable data during the course of this inaugural race, Mackenzie is now hungry for more in Sunday’s races.

Championship rookie Zaidi, the victim of a crash in difficult wet conditions earlier in the week, was unable to benefit from the official SBK test sessions held on Monday and Tuesday, which meant that he only had Friday and Saturday’s practice sessions in which to learn. The Malaysian rider steadily built confidence with the bike and improved his performance step by step over the course of the three practices but does not yet possess the required level of confidence to compete in the races. To ensure that he continues to progress, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team – focused on supporting promising talents like Zaidi so that they can gain valuable experience and grow at world level – will try to arrange a test session, to allow the rider to learn and prepare ahead of the second round of the season, scheduled to take place on 28-30 March.

Tarran Mackenzie

“It was a difficult race today in which I didn’t feel like I had the confidence to be able to push, and I didn’t want to risk any accidents. I felt a little better in FP3 this morning but then began to struggle more once the temperatures started to rise in qualifying, and then over race distance. Hopefully we can find something more for tomorrow’s races.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi

“This isn’t the lap time I expected and for sure I can be quicker, but I need time – time to understand the new bike, new tyres… The Superpole format is also a fresh challenge for me, with only the time to complete a couple of fast laps. I have made progress in each session, which is promising, just not enough progress yet. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t line up for the races of course, in what is my first championship round, but I will do my best to keep focus and work hard. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the SBK experience so far, challenging against riders who for me are all champions. The level of competition is very high here and I must accept that it will take time and effort to adapt and get to where we want to be. I just have to keep working to improve my riding, up my training and prepare as well as I can for the next round, where the plan is to continue to make progress.”

SBK Race Two

Tarran Mackenzie places eighteenth in the Superpole race, before a crash rules him out of the second and final WorldSBK race at Phillip Island.

Eager to build on Saturday’s results, which saw Tarran Mackenzie cross the line sixteenth, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team returned to the Australian track of Phillip Island on Sunday to compete in the Superpole Race and second Superbike race. Having not quite managed to set a valid qualification time on Saturday, championship rookie Zaqhwan Zaidi was unfortunately not permitted to compete in this weekend’s races but was allowed to take to the track for morning warm-up. With just ten minutes of track time to exploit, the Malaysian rookie continued to build knowledge of his CBR1000RR-R. In turn, Mackenzie and his technicians used the brief phase to make final preparation for the ten-lap Superpole race.

The short sprint ran in warm, humid conditions in the early afternoon. From row seven, Tarran immediately moved up to sixteenth after several riders crashed out on lap one. Working hard to stick with the riders immediately ahead, the British rider unfortunately lost ground after being forced off track to avoid colliding with Bautista, who had crashed and was still in the middle of the track. Eighteenth at the mid-race point, the gap that had opened up in front of Tarran prevented him from making up any positions, considering the limited laps available. Mackenzie nevertheless managed the final stages and completed the race, eighteenth across the line.

The weekend’s second and final 20-lap Superbike race ran according to schedule at 4pm local time (CET+10) and, like Race 1, involved a mandatory tyre change mid-race. Twenty-first on the grid, Mackenzie was running twentieth through the early stages but a crash through turn 6 unfortunately put paid to his efforts on lap eight of the race. With the season-opener done and dusted, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has just over a month in which to prepare for WorldSBK round 2, set to be staged at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal over the weekend of 28-30 March. Before then, the team will try to arrange a test session to provide rookie Zaidi with the opportunity to learn and prepare ahead of the second round of the season.

Zaqhwan Zaidi – DNS

“This first weekend has helped us understand where we need to improve. We’ve had a meeting to discuss the various aspects with my crew chief and I think we will have a test before the next round, which would be very helpful. For sure we need to make progress, but to do that we need more track time. I also need to work on my physical preparation, so I will be doing that in the coming weeks and months. In terms of the bike, we need to try different setups and solutions that can help me to ride. We tried a few things in today’s warm-up that were positive but, like I say, we need time. The team has worked really hard here, and I thank everyone in the garage for their help. The plan now is to do all I can to prepare for the next championship rounds.”

Tarran Mackenzie – 18th / DNF

“I was happy with Race 2 today as I felt a bit better and understood more about where we need to work. Obviously not the race result we wanted – I just lost the front through Turn 6 but I’m OK. Overall, it’s not been an easy weekend to be honest; I felt we were a little behind in testing and had a few problems that took us some time to properly understand. It wasn’t smooth sailing here in the end, but the good news is that we’ll have a test at Portimão, which will help us to reset and prepare for the next races in Europe.”