Tito Rabat will return to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship grid at Donington Park as he stands in for Tarran Mackenzie at the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda team. Rabat spent the first five rounds with the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team outfit but left by mutual consent after the Czech Round but will now be back on the WorldSBK grid at the Prosecco DOC UK Round for MIE Honda, the fourth manufacturer he’s ridden for in the Championship. Zaqhwan Zaidi (PETRONAS MIE Honda Racing Team) will also miss the round, with Portuguese rider Ivo Lopes standing in for the Malaysian.
Rabat’s return comes after Mackenzie left MIE Honda after a season and a half, where his best result was ninth in the Tissot Superpole Race in a wet Assen, while it was also his best weekend with the team in total with three points-scoring results. He also raced for the team in WorldSSP and famously took their first win at Most in a dramatic mixed conditions outing. However, ahead of Donington, the team announced that they would part ways with Mackenzie.
This freed up a seat and it will be taken by 2014 Moto2 World Champion Rabat. The #53 joined WorldSBK in 2021 with the Barni Racing Team although left the team before the end of the campaign. He then returned in the same season with the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing, where he raced on and off between 2021 and 2023, before taking a full-time ride with the team in 2024. In 2025, he moved to the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team as they expanded to a two-rider line-up, joining rookie Bahattin Sofuoglu. However, after Most, the team and Rabat announced their split. Rabat missed the Emilia-Romagna Round at Misano but will be back on the grid with the PETRONAS MIE Honda Racing Team at the UK Round at Donington Park, filling in for Mackenzie.
Lopes will also be on track with the team as he stands in for Malaysian rider Zaidi. The #21 will race at Motegi in the Asian championship, with Portuguese rider Lopes filling in for him. Lopes tested for the team at Misano and has raced for them before on several occasions throughout 2024, at Portimao, Magny-Cours, Cremona, Estoril and Jerez, but Donington will be a new challenge for Lopes.
Discussing his move to MIE Honda for Donington, Rabat said: “After sitting out the Misano round, I’m definitely going into the Donington round highly motivated to do well. 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 of his return to the team: “First of all, a big thanks to the team for giving me another opportunity to compete in the World Championship. As for Donington, I don’t know the track at all, so we need 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; we’ll see what I can do.”
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