The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda team has completed the first of the weekend’s Supersport races at the Misano World Circuit in Italy, crossing the line twenty-first with Adam Norrodin. Tarran Mackenzie was unfortunately almost caught up in an incident in the opening stages and retired from the race on lap two.

Earlier in the day, the team’s riders were out on track for the Superpole qualifying session. With just 20 minutes in which to set a fast time and secure the best possible grid position, Norrodin did well to set a 1’40.290 in the early stages. This lap time translated into the twenty-eighth spot on the starting grid. In the final ten minutes, the British rider wasted no time in setting a 1’39.449, a reference that saw him place twenty-second at the session’s end.

At 3.15pm local time, the lights went out on the first of the weekend’s two races. From the eighth row of the grid, Tarran got off the line fast but then came close to being caught up in an incident, when another rider made contact with him. The Brit returned to the pits on lap two, his race unfortunately ending there. Meanwhile, Adam had work to do from row ten of the grid, the Malaysian positioning twenty-fifth through the first corners. Profiting also from crashes for some other riders, Norrodin made up two places already in the early stages. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider continued to make up ground and, having closed in on Okaya, battled with his Japanese rival, exchanging places with him on the very last lap before ultimately scoring a twenty-first place finish.

Adam Norrodin P21

“It was a tough race. I made quite a good start and tried to keep pace with the group, but I’m losing quite a lot in acceleration which meant that my rivals were pulling away from me out of the slow corners. I actually had a good battle with Okaya on the last lap and even got past him, but then he passed me back. We need to have a think about what we can do for tomorrow, trying to improve my front feeling so that I can overtake with more confidence. As always, we take the positives from today’s race anyway, and will see how we can use that in tomorrow’s race.”

Tarran Mackenzie DNF

“Basically, I hit neutral in the corner before the back straight and then I think Abe made contact with me. After that my bike didn’t feel quite right and the rest of the field were already well ahead. I didn’t want to continue in case there was a problem with the bike and so I did one more lap and then came into the pits. A disappointing end to the day for sure, as we had quite a good qualifying, but the beauty of Supersport is that we have another opportunity tomorrow to make amends.”

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