Petronas riders no smooth operators on slick track in Brno

The slick track condition of the Brno Circuit did no favours for Malaysia’s Petronas Sprinta Racing riders John McPhee and Khairul Idham Pawi (KIP) at the Czech Republic MotorGP. McPhee’s fastest lap time of 2:09.566 placed him eighth in the morning session while teammate Khairul was 14th fastest with 2:09.884.

In the afternoon session, McPhee’s fastest lap time was 2:09.663 which was the fourth quickest while Khairul, on his Honda NSF250RW, improved three spots with a time of 2:09.914 to be placed 11th.

McPhee wrapped up Friday’s first two practice sessions with the ninth fastest time while Khairul ended up 18th in combined times on the 5.4km circuit.

Scotsman McPhee said he enjoyed riding at the Brno Circuit after the last two races – the Spanish GP and the Andalusian GP – were held at Jerez Circuit.

“I’m feeling good. It’s been great to ride at a different track as I really enjoy it here. If I can be consistently in the top five or six, we will be in a good position on the race day,” said McPhee.

“In qualifying, it’s very important to get a good lap together but also, if you can benefit from a slipstream it helps a lot.”

Khairul said he was feeling positive with the bike set-up for the weekend race.

“I’ve had a really positive feeling with the bike.

“We made some changes to increase my confidence in the front end, which has worked well.

“Every time we’ve made a small change, it felt better immediately. I’m feeling positive, we know there are still some things we can improve and I’m looking forward to the race,” said Khairul.