It was a strong Saturday at round four of the Asia Road Race Championship for Honda Asia Dream Racing with Astemo's Andi Farid Izdihar in particular, with an opening race victory.

During the first half of today's qualifying session at the Mandalika circuit, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Zaqhwan Zaidi pushed to line up 6th & 8th on the grid, whilst Andi went third fastest to line up on the front row.

In Race 1, Andi dropped some positions from the start whilst Nakarin jumped to third. After a few laps, Andi started his ascent, fighting with Kunii for second and finally taking the lead until the chequered flag.

Nakarin fought hard until the end to conclude the race in fifth, while Zaqhwan held his starting position of 8th until the finish.

Andi Farid Izdihar #23 – QP : P3 /Race1 : Winner!!!

"I am so happy that I can win in Race 1. I feel confident on the bike, and the mechanics prepared the bike very well. We always improve the bike set up so I think we can improve even more for tomorrow Race 2."

Nakarin Atiratphuvapat #41 – QP : P6 / Race1 : P5

"My pace today was not so good. I made very good start from sixth to third in the beginning and tried to follow the front group. Andi was so fast and I tried to go with him but struggled a lot passing Hafizh, so lost a big gap to the top. Then I make a mistake on turn 16, pushing too much, and dropped to fifth. I will learn and improve this point, tomorrow I will fight again for podium."

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21 – QP : P8 /Race1 : P8

Today Race 1 was a bit of a struggle and I tried my best to keep in the front group. I feel able to go fast but the feeling on the bike was not so good after a big crash yesterday. I feel a bit don't have full confidence. Anyway, I understand where my weak points are and for tomorrow we will fix this and try my best to be on top again."

Makoto Tamada - HADR Team Manager

"The use of Qualifying tyres was not permitted in this qualifying session, so the riders had to attack on soft tyres and race tyres. All three riders spent more time checking their settings for Race 1 than on their qualifying times. In Race 1 Andi had a bit of a bad start. He allowed a gap of nearly two seconds to the top rider, but he was able to replicate the good settings on his race tyres this week. He maintained a high average and took the lead, winning the race. I think the rivals will also improve tomorrow, so it will be an even tougher race, but I will back him up so he can win. Nakarin's race was better than in qualifying. He should have ended up in third place, but made a mistake and missed the podium, but I will back him up so he can be even faster tomorrow. Zaqhwan has not been in good form since his crash on the first day, but the problem has become clear after Race 1. If he can solve the problem tomorrow, I'm sure he will return to the top three."