The roaring of the Asia Superbike 1000cc has begun at the Sepang International Circuit as riders gear up for Round 2 of the Idemitsu FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC). Round 1 saw Haruki Noguchi of SDG MS HARC-PRO.HONDA.PH. making waves on the circuit consequently taking lead in the overall standings.
During Practice Session 1 this morning, Markus Reiterberger of ONEXOX BMW TKKR TEAM seem to be more confident when emerged fastest when he marked it at 2’07:092s. Md Zaqhwan Zaidi of HONDA- ASIA DREAM RACING WITH SHOWA made the second fastest at 2’07:407s. At the third fastest, it was Passawit Thitivararak of ASTEMO SI RACING WITH THAI HONDA at 2’08:507s.
In Practice 2, Markus kept up to the momentum and made it fastest once again at 2’06:848s. Haruki who took his time to get adjusted to the pace made it second fastest at 2’07:447s. It may not be a significant increase in speed for Zaqhwan however he made it third fastest at 2’07:719s.
Markus seemed relentless in making the cut for today and in Practice 3, his pursuit landed him fastest at 2’05:849s. Following up closely was Zaqhwan who made his fastest lap time at 2’07:257s and Passawit at 2’07:327s. As a result, Markus claimed fastest for today’s session followed by Zaqhwan and Passawit in the second and third fastest spot respectively.
Commenting on the session, Markus said, “First of all, I am happy to come back to Sepang as I am pretty comfortable with the circuit. The humidity may be a little difficult for me nevertheless, I enjoy riding here. We changed the machine a little compared to Buriram, we improved. In the first and second practice, I was already at the first position but I didn’t feel so good on the machine. We were far away from the lap time in 2020 so we worked on the setting and tested a few times for FP3. While we have made it this far, there are improvements to be done on the grip. We shall see how it will be tomorrow. The weather can be unpredictable so if it rains, it may be different.”
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