Tarran Mackenzie says he couldn’t make the most of his opportunities as he persevered through a tough first WorldSBK weekend as a full-time rider with the Petronas MIE Racing Honda team.

The 2021 British Superbike Champion makes the step up to the WorldSBK class after a race-winning, but otherwise difficult season with the Malaysian-backed Czech team in the WorldSSP class.

Having had his preparations hampered by issues while running-in the new iteration of the Honda CBR1000RR-R during pre-season testing, Mackenzie was then hampered by further problems at choice moments through the race weekend.

With technical woes scuppering his best hopes during Superpole, Mackenzie says he was feeling competitive just prior to Race 2 being red flagged before losing touch during the 11-lap sprint of the restart.

Despite this, Mackenzie says it is telling he set his best lap of the weekend in that final race and therefore feels there is plenty more to come from his Honda package when WorldSBK resumes in Barcelona in two months’ time.

“Unfortunately, when I went out for the morning’s Superpole race I had a technical problem and so had to come back into the pits already on the warm-up lap. 

“Later in the day, when race 2 started for the first time, I was almost on the back of the group but then the race was red-flagged. In the restarted race, I had slightly better feeling on the bike, but it was only a short race of course. 

“I set my best lap of the weekend anyway, and was a little more consistent, feeling the best I had all weekend actually, so that’s a positive sign as we head to Barcelona.”