PETRONAS Sprinta Racing complete positive 2019 preseason

2019-03-04 09:25
John McPhee and Ayumu Sasaki finish 6th and 15th respectively as they end preseason in good form at Qatar test, with season set to start at same circuit next weekend.

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SEE IMAGES
alt_text 15th
AYUMU
SASAKI
+1.056
alt_text 6th
JOHN
MCPHEE
+0.614
With the final test of the 2019 preseason now in the bag, PETRONAS Sprinta Racing are ready for the opening round of the Moto3 World Championship after an intense period of preparation. Both riders and their technical staff have found good base settings for their Moto3 machines, giving them plenty of reason for optimism ahead of the new campaign. John McPhee ended the Qatar test tonight in 6th place with his teammate Ayumu Sasaki in 15th.

After a period of adaptation to the Honda, John McPhee and his team are now feeling satisfied with the package they have worked so hard to find. The Scotsman has been consistent throughout the three days in Qatar, setting strong lap times riding alone. The PETRONAS Sprinta Racing rider clocked his best lap of the Qatar test tonight with a 2’05.899 during the second session.

His teammate Ayumu Sasaki also ended preseason with a good feeling with his bike, even though he has struggled a little at the Losail International Circuit, mainly thanks to a heavy crash suffered last night. However, the Japanese rider and his team have found a good setting for this track, as they did at Jerez, with Sasaki finishing the Qatar test with a best lap of 2’06.341, set in tonight’s final session.

With preseason now complete, PETRONAS Sprinta Racing are looking forward to the start of the new season, with the GP of Qatar due to get underway with the opening free practice sessions on Friday 8th March.

Johan Stigefelt - Team Director
"We have had three good days of testing in Qatar. John [McPhee] has taken a little time to adjust to the Honda but we have worked hard on the set-up of the bike ever since we started preseason back at Valencia last year - we have changed and tried a lot of things and in the end we have found a good package that he likes and is comfortable with. In fact, today was the best day we have had in preseason because he has done a lot of laps alone, setting fast and consistent times. He was also able to set a qualifying lap on his own with the soft tyre. He used this package today and he and the team have done a great job. I’m pleased to end preseason testing like this and I think on John’s side we are ready.

Ayumu [Sasaki] has had a good preseason, although not so much in this Qatar Test because it has been difficult for him, with a big crash yesterday that affected him a little. Step by step he has made progress and at the end of the session we saw he could be fast straight away. Ayumu will be ready for the race - he found a good setting at Jerez that he is happy with and there are just a couple of areas on the track here where he needs to be faster."

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#71 Ayumu Sasaki
"I am happy because I was progressing well but I just struggled a bit on the last day when I wanted more. The good thing is that we could see the right direction during the last session of the test and I am happy to have finished the test like this. I was expecting a bit more but it’s never easy after a crash like yesterday. I am ready for the race and we still have three practice sessions to improve, so I am looking forward to the weekend."


#17 John McPhee
"We have had three very productive days here in Qatar. We already had a good base set-up for the bike after the Jerez test but we have kept working as a team to improve the feeling even more. I am very happy with how the team is working, they have all been fantastic and step by step we have improved the lap time and our race pace. These three days we mainly focused on race pace and race setting and I feel very comfortable and consistent over a long run. We treated the second session tonight as more like a qualifying session to see what lap time we could manage and we ended up happy with the lap time because I set it on my own. It is great to finish the last test of preseason like this."

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RESULTS (3 days combined):
1. ROMANO FENATI / Honda
2:05.285

2. TONY ARBOLINO / Honda
+0.230

3. ARON CANET / KTM
+0.368

4. LORENZO DALLA PORTA / Honda
+0.486

5. NICCOLO ANTONELLI / Honda
+0.507

6. JOHN MCPHEE / PETRONAS Sprinta Racing
+0.614

15. AYUMU SASAKI / PETRONAS Sprinta Racing
+1.056
FULL CLASIFICATION
CIRCUIT INFORMATION:
Losail International Circuit

Lenght: 5.380km
Right Corners: 10
Left corners: 6
Longest straight: 1.068m
Width: 12m
Fastest Lap: 2:05.590
(Jorge Martín 2018)
Circuit Record: 2:05.862
(Alexis Masbou 2014)

Source: SIC Racing Team

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