Petronas Sprinta Racing gaining momentum

MALAYSIA’S world championship teams are certainly going through a rosy period at the moment.

John McPhee, who clinched pole on Saturday, delivered Petronas Sprinta Racing’s firstever win in Moto3 with a splendid performance at the French Motorcycle Grand Prix yesterday.

It was a gritty race at the Le Mans circuit with crashes aplenty, only 17 from the 29 riders on the grid finished the race.

McPhee, however, held steady to edge Leopard Racing’s Lorenzo Dalla Porta to the line and take the chequered flag in 37 minutes and 48.689 seconds.

Dalla Porta (+0.106s) and Sterilgarda Max Racing’s Aron Canet (+0.757s) came in second and third. Petronas Sprinta’s Ayumu Sasaki finished 14th (+11.896s).

An elated McPhee said he could not have asked for more.

“I can’t even explain it. It’s very emotional and has been a long time coming,” said McPhee.

“I have been struggling since the start of the season... it has been hard to turn the speed that we had into results.

“Finally yesterday (Saturday), I managed to turn that around (with pole) in qualifying and repay the team a little bit.

“We have had some tough weekends, but the team have always believed in me.

“I have in the past been known as a wet weather rider and my one win in Brno (2016) was in the rain.

“To get the first win in the dry is kind of a massive monkey off my back.

“We are still in the first quarter of the season and there is a long way to go, hopefully, we can continue to do well and turn things around.”

It is only the second time McPhee has won a race since he joined Moto3 in 2013. His previous win came at the Czech Grand Prix in 2016.

The Scotsman made a relatively slow start to the season since he moved to Petronas Sprinta this year with a 12th place finish at Jerez a fortnight ago being his best result prior to his win.