MIE Racing Honda Team prepares for penultimate WorldSBK round
The Mandalika International Street Circuit in Indonesia will host the penultimate Superbike World Championship round this coming weekend.
For the MIE Racing Honda team, it will be important for riders Leandro ‘Tati’ Mercado and Hafizh Syahrin to hit the ground running if they want to do well in the weekend’s three races. At the recent Argentinian round, Mercado struggled with pain and fatigue after crashing in Saturday’s race 1, while Syahrin was forced to sit out the weekend following a training accident and positive Covid diagnosis.
Both riders will be back in the garage this weekend and are prepared for what is likely to be another challenging round, to run in potentially challenging conditions. Last year’s WorldSBK round, the Mandalika Circuit’s very first international race meet in fact, was conditioned by rain, with the Superpole race ultimately cancelled due to bad weather. Teams and riders are hoping for a somewhat smoother weekend this time around. Located in the Mandalika area of the West Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia, the track measures 4.3 km and incorporates seventeen turns, with six left-handers and eleven right-handers.
Leandro Mercado
“Lombok is a track I like, and we did really well here last year, finishing inside the ten, so I hope to have a good weekend this time around. Although we didn’t see much in terms of our overall classification, in Argentina we worked really well, and I think the feeling with the bike has changed. With my chief technician we set the work up a little differently and we have more ideas to try, so hopefully we can keep on pushing.”
Hafizh Syahrin
“I’m very happy to be back in the paddock. For once it was not a long trip from home, so we can say this will be kind of a home race. Now I’m feeling let’s say 90% because even though I had no serious Covid symptoms, I felt it a bit. But I’m confident that everything will be OK, physically-speaking. The track is another new one for me of course, but we will try our best and I think it will be interesting for us to see where we are. We’ll do our very best for the Indonesian WorldSBK fans!”
Track information:
Country: Indonesia
Name: Mandalika International Street Circuit
Length: 4.300 km
Pole position: left
Corners: 6 left-hand, 11 right-hand
SBK RECORDS: Best lap – Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) 1’34.288 (2021). Superpole – Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) 1’32.877 (2021).
2021 SBK RESULTS:
Race 1 – 1. Rea (Kawasaki; 2. Razgatlioglu (Yamaha); 2. Redding (Ducati)
Superpole race: cancelled due to bad weather
Race 2 – 1. Rea (Kawasaki); 2. Redding (Ducati); 3. Van der Mark (BMW)
