McPhee to start AmericasGP from fourth row of the grid
. By Bikeland Staff
A difficult Grand Prix of the Americas Qualifying day for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing, which saw both Moto3 riders have to go through Q1, ended with John McPhee tenth and Darryn Binder 17th.
McPhee had a good start to FP3, sitting inside of the top-14 places early on. However, the second half of the session saw the Scot struggle and his best lap of 2mins 17.525secs placed him 18th at the end of FP3. He made short work of Q1 though, ending it second with a 2mins 17.852secs lap. Starting Q2 with a 2mins 16.592secs lap, John initially went to seventh on the timing screens. Unable to improve further, he ultimately ended Q2 in tenth, securing a place on the fourth row of the grid.
After his first few FP3 laps were deleted for exceeding track limits, Binder quickly improved upon his time from yesterday. Unfortunately he was held up on his final lap and ended FP3 19th with a 2mins 17.554secs lap. He had no issue making his way out of Q1 though, posting the third fastest time – 2mins 17.999secs. Q2 proved to be a difficult affair for Darryn, who found himself outside of the top-15 for the majority of the session. After posting a fastest lap of 2mins 17.092secs, he will start tomorrow’s race from 17th.
Tomorrow’s race day action will begin at 8.40am local time (9.40pm MYT) for McPhee and Binder with Warm Up, while the 17-lap Moto3 race will get underway at 11am local time (12am MYT).
John McPhee
10th (2'16.592)
It was tough out there today; I felt like I was riding well but I was struggling to put the laps together. It’s difficult when you’re riding alone, especially on the long straight here, and we were definitely suffering a little bit. Darryn and myself worked really well together to make sure that we got through from Q1 to Q2. I managed to take a chunk of time off my lap, but that was mainly through the slipstream. The race is going to be tough, but I’m feeling good in the first two sectors. It’s just the third sector that we’re struggling a bit with, but that shouldn’t be an issue in the race, as we’ll have bikes around us. A good start will be needed but we’ll dig in and do our best. The first laps will be tough, but if we can be there then we should be able to fight in the top-five.