Wildcards Anuar and Azman look forward to Sunday’s Moto2 race at Sepang

The Sepang International Circuit is hosting this weekend’s PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia, in which the PETRONAS MIE Racing RW Team is fielding riders Azroy Anuar and Helmi Azman as a wildcard entry in the Moto2 category.

Having completed Friday’s initial practices with encouraging results, Saturday’s action brought a final free practice session and the all-important qualifying, which ran in typically hot conditions with humidity levels as high as 90%. In the morning’s FP3, both Anuar and Azman continued to make good progress, each able to find another second with respect to their respective performances in yesterday’s sessions. Azroy’s best, a 2’08.766, saw him position thirtieth, with team-mate Helmi placing thirty-first with a time of 2’09.815.

Back on track at 1.45pm local time (CET+7) for the first qualifying session. With only fifteen minutes in which to set a fast time, the two PETRONAS MIE Racing RW riders did their best to get to grips with the challenging format. Picking up the pace throughout the phase, Anuar set a fastest time of 2’08.183 to qualify twenty-ninth. Team-mate Azman also set his best time in the final minutes to place thirty-first with a 2’10.112.

Having improved their speed and placement with respect to yesterday, the eager duo look forward to the 17-lap Moto2 race, which is set to get underway at 1.15pm local time tomorrow.

#20 Azroy Anuar P29

“I’m happy with today’s FP3 and qualifying as we’ve been able to improve consistently throughout the day. Hopefully, I can do even more in tomorrow’s race and carry on the positive trend we’ve seen over the weekend so far. I want to thank everybody for their support and for giving me the opportunity to wildcard here in Malaysia.”

#32 Helmi Azman P31

“In FP3 I was able to improve a lot compared to Friday’s sessions. I tried to do the same in qualifying, but unfortunately I had a mechanical issue with the bike and couldn’t improve as I did in FP3. So we’re done for today and will now prepare for tomorrow’s race. I will give 100% heading into the race and do my best to stick with the group. Overall, I’m happy with the way we’re working this weekend – the team is keeping me motivated and we’ve improved in every session. Now we’ll identify the best set-up for the race, in which I’ll do my best to maintain the pace and finish in a good position.”

Full Results* Courtesy of MotoGP