John clocks up more points coming 5th at Phillip Island
PETRONAS Sprinta Racing rider John McPhee from Oban and teammate Ayumu Sasaki secured a sizeable haul of Moto3 World Championship points at last Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, battling their way through an epic race at Phillip Island to finish in fifth and seventh.
John was in contention for the top podium spot for most of the 23 laps around Australia’s iconic seaside circuit, running in the lead pack multiple times as the group chopped and changed around him.
Unfortunate
Looking set to take his fourth podium finish of the 2019 season, he was unfortunate to have another rider make contact on the final lap, just taking him out of the podium battle and forcing him to settle for fifth, a mere 0.330 seconds from the win.
John remains fifth in the championship after his fifthplace finish.
The 2019 Moto3 World Championship returns to action in only five days’ time at PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s home event, with action getting underway at the Sepang International Circuit on Friday November 1 ahead of the Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday November 3.
Dogfight
After the race John said: ‘It was a proper dogfight and I’m happy to finish fifth even if I am a little disappointed not to be on the podium.
‘I dug deep and gave it everything I had on the last lap, but at the same time, I had to be careful because it would have been very easy to end the race on the floor.
‘There were some very hard passes being made. There was literally nothing more I could have done in the last corner to get a slipstream to the podium and it’s a pity we missed out, but I’m delighted to have put even more points on the board.’