McPhee fights back for podium finish
Sprinta Racing’s John McPhee showed both grit and guile as he battled his way up the field to clinch a well-deserved second place in the Moto3 race at the San Marino Motorcycle Grand Prix yesterday.
McPhee’s crash in qualifying on Saturday saw him starting from 14th on the grid at Misano. The opening stages of the lightweight class race saw plenty of incidents.
Among the casualties included Petronas teammate Ayumu Sasaki, who crashed out on the opening lap.
Only 16 riders from the 30 who started the race crossed the finish line.
But McPhee clearly had strong race pace and despite being held back by a number of crashes, he was able to fight his way back to the front group in the business end of the race.
Tatsuki Suzuki went on to deliver an emotional win for Italian outfit SIC58 Squadra Corsa in 40 minutes and 0.034 seconds with McPhee 0.112s behind. VNE Snipers Tony Arbolino (+0.201s) completed the podium.
It was McPhee’s third podium of the season after winning at Le Mans and taking third in Austria.
“I’ve had really good pace but after the crash in qualifying I knew I had a lot of hard work to do in the race,” said McPhee.
“It was a very interesting race. Directly from the first corner, it was already not going to plan because I got caught up behind a crash and found myself in 16th position.
“I worked really hard and got myself up to the top 10 over the next few laps but then again got caught up in another crash and dropped to 18th.
“It was really difficult to fight my way up through the pack but I knew my pace was really strong and knew that I could chip away lap by lap as soon as I had some clear space.
“The most satisfying part of the race was being able to bridge the gap to the front group. But once there I had to recompose myself because I had been riding on the limit up till then.
“Overall, I am really happy with the result, big thanks to the team. Once again, we have shown we can be strong at every circuit.”
In Moto2, Petronas Sprinta Racing’s Adam Nordin, who is filling in for the injured Khairul Idham Pawi, crashed out in the early stages of the race.
Tetsuta Nagashima and Remy Gardner, who both ride for Malaysian-backed team ONEXOX TKKR SAG TEAM, also did not finish the race.
The world championships will head to Spain for the Aragon Motorcycle Grand Prix next week.