(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Honda's Zaqhwan Zaidi got off to a rapid start in the final round of the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship as he topped the SuperSports 600cc opening practice at the Losail International Circuit in Doha, yesterday.
The Musashi Boon Siew Honda rider outpaced championship leader, Katsuaki Fujiwara (BEET Kawasaki Racing) by 0.001 seconds late into the practice session with 2'06.217s.
His team-mate, Zamri Baba came in third quickest with 2'06.256s.
Petronas Hong Leong Yamaha's Yuki Ito who led the timesheets for most parts of the practice dropped to fourth with 2'06.235s having failed to improve his pace while Yudhistira (Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing) rounded up top five with 2'06.704s. The 19-year old Zaqhwan is currently ranked third overall in the SuperSports 600cc standings with 125 points, 22 points adrift Fujiwara (147 points) while Yuki is sandwiched between them with 140 points.
Meanwhile Kazuki Masaki (Team Honda RSC) cast usual suspects into the shade as he blazed to the top of the Underbone 130cc timesheets.
The Japanese rider who won the previous race in Thailand posted the quickest lap in 2'34.211s ahead of Mohd Amirul Ariff Musa (T.Pro Yuzy Honda) and Gupita Kresna (Kawasaki KYT Rextor Manual Tech) with 2'36.749s and 2'37.622s respectively.
Lastly newly crowned champion, Khairul Idham Pawi edged rival, Teppei Nagoe to record the quickest lap time in the Asia Dream Cup opening practice, on the day.
The Malaysian who secured the developmental series crown in Thailand became the only rider to dip his lap time under the two minutes 33 seconds mark with 2'33.227s.
Japan's Nagoe and Kurogi registered second and third quickest with 2'35.657s and 2'35.782s respectively, more than two seconds adrift from Khairul.
Today, FP3 3 are scheduled from 16:00 to 18:30. Qualifying practice for Underbone 130cc is at 19:45, for Supersport 600cc is at 20:40 and at 21:35 it will be for Asia Dream Cup.
There will be an official group photo with all the riders and teams at 22:30 at the starting grid of the circuit.
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