McPhee slithers to 17th in Moto3 qualiposted in OTHER03 | 09 | 2016
OBAN’S JOHN MCPHEE will start from a frustrating 17th on the 35-bike grid for tomorrow’s British Moto3 Grand Prix at Silverstone after enduring a difficult qualifying session.
The 22-year-old Scot, winner in the rain last time out in the Czech Republic, had posted the sixth-fastest time in this morning’s final free practice session.
But just as qualifying started a few hours later, the skies opened over the Northamptonshire circuit forcing the riders to fit wet tyres to deal with the slippery track.
Knowing conditions could worsen further, McPhee pushed hard on his early runs, setting the fifth quickest early time on his Peugeot-badged Mahindra, a 2m 35.711s.
But pushing to improve further, McPhee slid off his bike. The Scot managed to keep the engine running and limped back to the pits. After his Peugeot Saxoprint team carried out repairs, he managed to improve to 2m 35.336s.
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“It's annoying as we resolved Friday’s problems in the early third practice session and it was a big step forward in the dry. It looked positive,” McPhee said.
“But in qualifying, I struggled for front end feel. After I had the off, the team did a good job to get me back out but we didn’t have time to try anything different on set-up.
“But I was the only person to run a quicker lap at the end of the session. That demonstrates there’s definitely potential with the bike as it was.”
With weather conditions forecast to dry up for Sunday’s race, McPhee is looking forward to making up places quickly from the start.
“I’ll be happy enough if it’s dry,” he added. “I was fast in FP3 with the sixth best time and I want to show I can race both in the dry and wet conditions. I’m looking forward to putting on a show for the home fans at Silverstone.”
Italy’s Mahindra works rider, Francesco Bagnaia, took pole position with a time of 2:33.642s, just 0.106s ahead of fellow countryman Enea Bastianini’s Honda.
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Jim McGill