The Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team will have a completely different rider line-up at Donington Park next weekend.

For the United Kingdom World Superbike Round next weekend, the Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team will field a different line-up compared to the rest of the season.

As expected, Tito Rabat will come in to replace the departing Tarran Mackenzie on one side of the MIE Racing garage. However, on the other Ivo Lopes will stand in for Zaqhwan Zaidi, who will be competing in the ARRC round at Motegi.

Rabat has never ridden for the team or on a Honda in World Superbikes, but now has plenty of experience in the class. But Lopes worked closely with the team in 2024 as he did multiple stand-in rides across the season.

"After sitting out the Misano round, I’m definitely going into the Donington round highly motivated to do well," Rabat said.

"This will be the first time that I’ll be riding the Honda Superbike and working with the team, without any preparation or test time, so it won’t be easy of course. But it is a great opportunity and I’ll be doing my best to make the most of it.

"The goal will be to try and improve as much as we can session by session; we’ll see what we can do. I want to thank the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team for the opportunity and hope I’m up to the task!"

Lopes said: "First of all, a big thanks to the team for giving me another opportunity to compete in the world championship.

"As for Donington, well, I don’t know the track at all, so I'll need to work to understand it as quickly as possible. The goal is to interpret the track effectively, help the team as much as I can and do as well as I can.

"I know it will be tough as I don’t know the circuit but I’m ready to work hard; let's see what we can do."