Early end to Australian Grand Prix for McPhee
JOHN McPhee bounced back from a difficult qualifying position in the Japanese GP, gaining seven positions despite a shortened race distance of 13 laps and coming home in the top 10. Now it was time for Australia, where the Scot has been in the top five before.
The stunning Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is one of the most breathtaking places to go racing. The seven left, and five right-hand corners at some places seem to drop into the ocean before the optical illusion disappears again, with 4.4km of undulating tarmac making for a spectacular challenge.
Last year McPhee had great pace before unfortunately crashing out of contention, but this season sees the Scot back to full strength and ready to push for another top five finish at the venue – as well as the top five in the title race.
Currently sixth, the three remaining races give McPhee a good opportunity to move forward before the end of the year.
John was looking to catapult himself up the time sheets after day one at the Australian GP proved difficult for the former top five finisher at the venue.
On Friday in FP1 the Scot did 15 laps with a best of 1:40.886 coming on lap 11, and in FP2 McPhee improved to a 1:39.133 following another 16 laps. On combined time sheets the British Talent Team rider was P24, with more to find on Saturday despite the improvement from morning to afternoon.
After the Friday sessions John said: ‘It was a difficult first day for me. The first session, I didn’t feel good with the bike and we struggled to improve the lap time. After looking through it all we made some changes but unfortunately had an electrical issue which made it difficult to move forward in FP2.’
On Saturday John was left down the time sheets with rain coming down to interrupt the final part of the session as many were about to prepare a final push with the Scot having struggled for grip.
Starting from P25 on the grid in better weather, the task was a big one – with McPhee then sadly not getting chance to fight through the field after an early retirement from the race.
Next stop is Sepang as Malaysia, which greets the MotoGP paddock for the penultimate round of the year.