Encouraging progress for PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda in Portimão practice

Mackenzie and Zaidi work hard in Friday’s WSBK practice sessions at the Portuguese track.

The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal is the stage for the second round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship, in which the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team is fielding riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi.

The weekend’s opening practice took place in dry, sunny conditions on Friday morning. Mackenzie made an encouraging start, harnessing the data collected during testing to make adjustments to the electronics on his CBR1000RR-R. Setting a series of interesting lap times, the British rider set a best of 1’42.167 to place a solid fourteenth at the end of this first session. Rookie Zaidi used the opening session to get to grips with this tricky circuit in dry conditions, considering that this is the first time he is competing here and that the recent test took place largely in wet and mixed conditions. Making fifteen laps in all during the 45 minutes available to him, the Malaysian set a fastest time of 1’45.311 to place twenty-first.

Finding another half second already in the early stages of the afternoon’s FP2, Zaqhwan continued to work with his technicians to learn the secrets to this undulating circuit. Continuing with his step-by-step approach, the Malaysian made further progress during the course of the session, closing twenty-third with a time of 1’44.771. After making a few modifications to his bike during the course of the afternoon’s session, Tarran took a step forward in the latter stages. His best time, a 1’41.904, meant that he rounded out day one in eighteenth position in the aggregate standings.

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“It’s really tough here, a very challenging rollercoaster layout here, and we need to understand the flow and learn the best way to ride. Here, if you make a mistake through one corner, you then condition the rest of the lap as it’s all connected. So, it’s not easy, but I’m improving my feeling with the bike. We’re improving day by day and are slowly closing the gap, which is good, but for sure it’s not enough yet. I need to continue working hard, to understand how to work with the bike and the team – I’m very happy with the team by the way, they’re really helping me. The test we had was useful in helping me learn a new track, but the conditions were not so good, very different to how it is here now. I have more confidence to push now that the conditions are hotter. Tomorrow we’ll try something a bit different with the setup and we’ll see if that can take us on in the right direction.” 

Tarran Mackenzie #95

“I think we took the biggest step this morning. The recent test we had here was useful chassis-wise but we got to the end of that test thinking it was more the electronics that could help us. So, we made quite a big change to the electronics coming into this weekend, and I can say I felt a bit more comfortable. The modification made it a bit easier to ride, allowing me to ride more the way I like. And then, after trying a few things at the start of the afternoon session that didn’t really work, we took another step towards the end, which was positive. It’s nice to be more in the mix; let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

First championship points for Mackenzie at Portimão

A solid performance by Mackenzie sees him cross the line fourteenth in Race 1 in Portugal.

On track at Portugal’s AIA circuit for the second Superbike World Championship round of the 2025 season, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team worked hard on Saturday. Riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi used the morning’s third and final practice to make final adjustments to their CBR1000RR-R machines. Both were able to improve on Friday’s references, with Tarran putting in a 1’41.741 and Zaqhwan lowering his best of yesterday by half a second (1’44.208).

The team was back out at 11am local time (CET-1) for the Superpole qualifying sessions. Able to set a 1’41.414 on his first exit, Mackenzie went on to complete a second exit but it was his initial time that remained his quickest reference. This result saw him qualify twentieth for the first of the weekend’s Superbike races. Team-mate Zaidi also made his fastest lap in the opening stages of this brief 15-minute phase. Just as he has done in each session so far, the Malaysian continued to improve on his personal best. A fastest time of 1’43.847 meant that he closed twenty-second, for a place on the eighth row of the Race 1 starting grid.

The first of the weekend’s full length Superbike races, comprising 20 laps, ran at 2pm local time in dry conditions (track temp. 41°C, air temp. 26°C). British rider Mackenzie got away well and was quickly up to seventeenth. Less than a second from the points zone and lapping slightly quicker than some of his closest rivals, Tarran moved into fifteenth place towards the mid-race point. Not content with that position, Mackenzie continued to push hard to the line, securing a solid fourteenth place finish and scoring his first championship points of the season. In his first race at the tricky Portimão circuit, Zaidi made up several positions in the early stages to find himself twentieth on lap two. As the race progressed, the young Malaysian gradually began to lose contact with his immediate rivals. Continuing to work hard and gaining another couple of positions following accidents for other riders, Zaqhwan got as far as lap twelve when unfortunately, he suffered a crash through turn 8 that put a premature end to his efforts.

Tarran Mackenzie #95

“It would have been nice to pass Sofuoglu at the end, but two points is good anyway, in what was probably my best dry race for a long time. We’re still struggling in some areas but if we can make slight improvement there, it could make a big difference, I think. We tried something with the electronics this morning that helped in the race, but I think we can take another step and be a bit more competitive tomorrow. It was hard to make passes as we were losing a little on corner exit so if we can gain a little bit there, it would make the job easier. Let’s see if we can take another step and continue on in the right direction tomorrow.”

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“I’m happy with the progress we’re making. Practice by practice I’ve been able to improve and if we compare where we are now to where we were at the first round, it’s clear we’re moving in the right direction. I can be faster now, but I think I could be more comfortable on the bike. Generally, we’ve improved a lot already and I think that the feeling is there, we just need to keep working now. Unfortunately, I crashed in today’s race, losing the front, but before that, I was able to hold the pace. I think I just pushed a little over the limit in trying to get the bike to do what I wanted. But we’ve learned from today and will try something different tomorrow to see if we can continue to make progress.”

Mixed fortunes for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders on Sunday at Portimão

Rookie Zaidi rounds out a weekend of progress with a sixteenth-place finish in SBK race 2, while two crashes unfortunately put paid to Mackenzie’s efforts on Sunday.

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi have now concluded the second WorldSBK Championship weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, with Sunday’s races bringing mixed fortunes.

Early in the day, the team used a short warm-up session to make final assessments ahead of the day’s Superpole race and second 20-lap Superbike race. The ten-lap Superpole sprint race got underway at 11am local time (CET-1) under sunny skies. From twentieth on the grid, Tarran was lying seventeenth through lap one but slipped a couple of positions over the course of the opening laps. As he worked to make up the lost ground, the British rider unfortunately suffered a crash on lap 6, at turn 13, and this incident left him unable to continue with his race. Unhurt and undeterred, Tarran immediately turned his attention to Race 2. Team-mate Zaidi, who is competing at the tricky Portimão circuit for the first time, progressed from twenty-third to twenty-first place. Struggling to keep contact with the group, he focused on running a consistent, albeit solitary race. Completing the race without mistakes and collecting more valuable data in the process, the Malaysian brought his bike home in twenty-first position.

Back on track in the early afternoon for the second and final 20-lap SBK race, Tarran again started from twentieth and Zaqhwan from twenty-second. Both held those positions early on, with Mackenzie able to up the pace as the race went on. Zaidi was focused on completing this full-length race after being unable to do so on Saturday. On lap ten, a crash for another rider meant that the race was brought to a halt with a red flag. With the race restarted a short time later and reduced to 11 laps, Tarran and Zaqhwan started eighteenth and nineteenth respectively. Each able to gain a position almost immediately, they were running a consistent race. Zaidi kept his head down, ultimately crossing the line in an encouraging sixteenth position, just outside the points zone. Mackenzie’s race was briefly interrupted when he crashed at Turn 3 on lap nine, but the tenacious Brit was able to rejoin and reach the finish line, in seventeenth position.

As round 2 draws to a close, Mackenzie lies twentieth in the championship standings having scored 2 points this weekend, while team-mate Zaidi is yet to score points. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back in action on 11-13 April, competing in the third WorldSBK championship round at the TT Circuit Assen in The Netherlands.

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“I think this was a positive race and I can say we’ve seen good progression over the weekend. I’m starting to better understand how to use the bike but it’s not easy putting it all together, with a new bike, tyres, track and everything. So, we need to keep working, for sure. I know I need to improve more of course, but we have definitely taken a step here and if we keep trying and stay focused, I think we can do more at Assen. A big thanks to the whole team for all their hard work here, and now we’ll prepare for Assen, our next challenge!”

Tarran Mackenzie #95

“We made a bit of a change to the bike after warm-up, going in a slightly different direction geometry-wise. That proved positive and the lap times were more consistent in the Superpole race. It’s quite a big change though, and unfortunately I caught myself out with it and crashed. We went in the same direction for race 2, and I felt quite good once the race restarted but I’m still trying to understand how to ride it, as I need to approach it a bit differently. I think it can be positive moving forward so this was kind of a test today. It was a bit frustrating to crash but that was part of the learning process this weekend. I’d have liked to have scored points again today but, like I say, I think what we tried today can be positive going forward.”