McPhee and Sasaki off to a flying start in Austria2019-08-09 07:47PETRONAS Sprinta Racing have got the Austrian Grand Prix off to a flying start, with John McPhee and Ayumu Sasaki achieving their goal of a strong start to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend by ending Friday’s combined practice sessions second and fourth respectively. Putting his Czech Grand Prix injuries from only five days ago behind him, McPhee was strong throughout the day, spending much of the two sessions threatening for the top spot, before just briefly getting pipped as the chequered flag came out. Consolidating his strong pace with second place, it also helps him secure a direct route to Q2 tomorrow. Sasaki, already a fan of the Red Bull Ring after a strong performance twelve months ago, also secured a flying start to the weekend just a few tenths of a second behind his team-mate in fourth. Knowing coming into the weekend that he needed to be fast from the get-go, Sasaki ended the day delighted not only with his provisional placement but with how comfortable he’s feeling on the bike. The next Moto3 action at the Red Bull Ring kicks off tomorrow at 0900 local time (1500 Malaysian time), ahead of qualifying at 1235 local time (1835 Malaysian time) and Sunday’s race at 1100 local time (1700 Malaysian time). Show more images Result John McPhee 2nd (+0.031) Result Ayumu Sasaki 4th (+0.352) “It’s nice to be back riding again, because after last Sunday’s race I wasn’t sure how strong I could be here. I’ve been recovering well and I had a good FP1 session, but I banged my knee again on the kerb and it made me a little nervous. Instead of pushing too hard, I tried to concentrate on making sure the bike was right and saved myself for the afternoon. In FP2 I was consistently fast on my own. I was quick enough to go to Q2 on a hard tyre as well as the soft, which is a positive. We just have a couple of small things to improve with the bike to be even faster tomorrow.” “Our target was to improve my first day, because a good start to the weekend always seems to translate into a good race on Sunday for me. We made a great start today, we did a good job as a team and I was able to complete a long run of consistent laps. I’m really happy to be able to do that kind of speed on my own, and I could have been even faster on the last lap but I ran on a little bit. We might have had a chance to be fastest, but it’s only Friday and the most important thing is that we had a good feeling with the bike. Now we just need to continue it tomorrow!” Moto3 Combined Practice Results - Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich POS. RIDER NUM TEAM TIME 1 Celestino Vietti 13 SKY Racing Team VR46 1'36.585 2 John McPhee 17 PETRONAS Sprinta Racing 1'36.616 3 Tatsuki Suzuki 24 SIC58 Squadra Corse 1'36.638 Source: SIC Racing Team Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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