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The Asia Production 250 drama began on the grid in Race 2, when Gerry Salim’s Astra Honda suffered a mechanical failure and was pushed from the front row of the grid and back into the pit box at Chang International Circuit.   Takehiro Yamamoto got a better start than he had in Race 1 and followed Yamaha Thailand’s Anuparb Sarmoon into Turn 1 before powering into the lead on the long haul up to Turn 3, chased by the rest of the pack. He held onto first place until the beginning of lap 2, crossing the line ahead of Rheza Danica Ahrens, Anuparb and Galang Hendra Pratama.  By lap 3 Yamamoto, Rheza and Anuparb had broken clear of Pratama, who began to fall back into the clutches of the second group, which was being led by Awhin Sanjaya and Tomoyoshi Koyama. By the fifth lap Yamamoto and Anuparb had put several bike lengths between themselves and Rheza, but the Astra Honda man clawed his way back, hitting the front on lap eight. These three were so evenly paced that the only thing to choose between them was the speed of the Hondas on the fast sections. To make up for his top speed disadvantage, the clever Anuparb altered his lines to ensure he was exiting the turns faster than his rivals so he could get the slipstream he needed to stay in contact. On the last lap the Thai lost his momentum avoiding a mistake by Rheza and Yamamoto took the opportunity to open a big enough gap to avoid a last corner scramble for the chequered flag. Behind him, Anuparb pushed his R6 up the inside of Rheza to force him off line, but went wide himself in the process, conceding second place to the Honda.  Ten seconds further back the second group was led home by Awhin from Yusuke Nakamura, Pratama, Koyama, Peerapong Boonlert and Vorapong Malahuan who again outperformed for AP Honda on the single cylinder CBR. It was a champion’s performance by the Sidrap Honda Ikazuchi rider who, over the full season has an excellent chance to win the 250cc crown for a second time.

After his convincing qualifying performance, pole man Takehiro Yamamoto bogged down his twin engined Honda on the line, dropping down to eighth position during lap 1 as Gerry Salim, Anuparb Sarmoon, Boonlert, Luiboonpeng and Galang Hendra Pratama rushed past. The 2015 champion recovered by lap 3 to get briefly to the front of the leading pack of six bikes, which had begun to create a gap back to Pratama. Behind them Tomoyoshi Koyama led the second group which, by lap six had engulfed Boonlert and Luiboonpeng as the two Astra Hondas of Salim and Rheza, the Sidrap Honda of Yamamoto and the Yamaha Thailand R25 of Anuparb got away at the front. Despite the lead swapping continuously, it was Salim who looked the most convincing during his stints in the lead.  From Turn 4 on the last lap Salim and Anuparb created a small gap to Rheza and Yamamoto, but, as they got to Chang International’s formidable final corner, they bunched together once again. As the four bikes squirmed under braking it could have been anyone’s victory, but it was Salim who got the power down best to take a narrow win from Anuparb, with Rheza getting half a wheel in front of Yamamoto to take third place. The next group was 8.5 seconds further back and led over the line by the Astra Honda of Awhin Sanjaya, just in front of the RAMA Honda of Koyama who made it five Hondas in the top six.  Despite the exceptional performance of Anuparb, Yamaha will spend the evening pouring over data from today’s race to find more than one an answer to the dominance of Honda’s parallel twin powered CBR250RR.

Qualifying for Round 2 of Asia Production 250cc was red flagged early in the session when a dog tried to join the action, but at the restart it was the two cylinder Honda CBR of Takehiro Yamamoto that immediately set the pace, banking a time of 1:53.464 on his eighth lap. As his leading rivals got down to business, it was Gerry Salim, Rheza Danica Ahrens and the three Thai Yamahas of Anuparb Sarmoon, Peerapong Boonlert and Peerapong Luiboonpeng who led the chase for the front row positions. Close behind them were Galang Hendra Pratama for Yamaha Indonesia and AP Honda’s Vorapong Malahuan who continued to wring  impressive times out of the single cylinder CBR. Yamamoto’s early lap was good enough for pole position, with the other in-form riders, Salim and Anuparb joining him on the front row. In what could turn out to be a tactical team battle, the Astra Honda of Rheza leads the second row ahead of Yamaha Thailand’s Luiboonpeng and Boonlert. Row three consists of Pratama, Vorapong and the third Astra Honda of Awhin Sanjaya.