- Tough day for Idemitsu Honda Racing Team
- Rajiv Sethu manages to qualify 15th but crashes in Race 1 in lap 2
- Senthil Kumar starts Race 1 in 22nd position, moves up by three positions
After a fruitful Day 1 of three practice sessions, Idemitsu Honda Racing team was aiming at Top 10 and Top 15 positions in Race 1. However, the plan turned out to be otherwise as Rajiv Sethu could clock a qualifying time of 2:27:617 which secured him the 15th position for Race 1. Meanwhile, Senthil Kunar gave his best shot and managed to qualify in 22nd position out of the 30 riders on the grid. However, his lap time was only two seconds off his teammate as his lap times stood at 2:29:612.
Hoping for better results in Race 1, Rajiv had a good start which allowed him to stay close with the top 15 riders. To counter the 5th-row qualification, Rajiv opted to aggressively chase the riders ahead of him in order to move up in position before the pack staredt to spread out. Unfortunately, this tactic turned out to be unfortunate as he suffered a highside before crashing in turn 11 thus cutting short his chances of a Top 10 finish in Race 1.
As for his teammate, Senthil Kumar, despite his start from 22nd position on the grid and a poor start which cost him two positions, he managed to overtake the two riders in the very first corner of the race. Later, during the course of the race, he further moved up by three positions before crossing the chequered flag in 17th position. While he might not have been able to achieve his Top 15 goal, he did manage to remain calm throughout the race even when two riders, Shahrol Yuzy (Malaysia) and Sawapol Nilapong (Thailand) with a strong home turf advantage were hot on his tail.
Race 1 of Round 6 of the on-going Asia Road Racing Championship was won by the Indonesian rider Irfan Ardiansyah from Astra Honda, followed by Muklada Sarapuech from A.P. Honda Racing Thailand in second and Rafid Topan Sucipto representing Bike Corner SYS KYT Racing Team.
