Difficult race for John McPhee in San Marino Grand Prix
CONNEL’S John McPhee started the San Marino Grand Prix Moto3 race at Misano from 26th on the grid.
The RSF-backed rider ended what was his worst qualifying session of the season with a 1m 43.986s lap that left him 1.5s adrift of pole.
John faced an uphill struggle with yet another difficult weekend trying to make sense of his 2015 RTG Honda and his lowly grid position.
After the start, John fell back to 27th – but recovered back into 25th place – in the first lap as Bastianini took the lead, ahead of Brad Binder and Romano Fenati.
By lap eight of the 23 lap race, John had pushed up to 21st place and by lap 11 he had continued to advance and reached 19th.
Trade places With six laps to go – and Miguel Oliveira leading the race – John had moved up to 18th, ahead of Darryn Binder, Hanika and Ono; with whom he continued to trade places over the remaining laps.
John eventually crossed the finish line in 19th position, while Bastianini took his maiden win on his home track.
John said: ‘It was a difficult race today. Starting from 26th position was always going to be hard. My pace felt okay, but really it was just a case of I was just too far back and, in the end, I tried to make the best position possible, but it was difficult.’