Solid finishes for McPhee and Sasaki at Japanese GP2019-10-20 15:23John McPhee and Ayumu Sasaki had a solid finish to their Japanese Grand Prix weekend for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing, coming home in today’s race at the Twin Ring Motegi in sixth and 13th respectively to help consolidate their positions in the 2019 Moto3 World Championship standings. McPhee was quick to get stuck into the fight for the win in the opening minutes of the 20-lap race, running as high as fifth as he diced with the leading group. On lap 14, he was unlucky to lose out when another rider crashed out in front of him, meaning he dropped off from the lead pack. Riding alone for the final six laps to finish sixth, 3.648secs behind the winner, he scored ten valuable points to close down the gap to third in the championship. Sasaki made a strong start from P18 on the grid, picking his way through the field to get into the battle for the top ten as the leading group pulled away. Moving up to 11th as the last lap commenced, he just lost out in the final corners to finish his home race in 13th. Scoring points for the sixth time in eight races, his result maintains his own place inside the top twenty in the World Championship as well as helping PETRONAS Sprinta Racing to move into fifth in the teams’ championship race. The Moto3 World Championship continues next weekend in Australia at Phillip Island. Action gets underway on Friday 25th October ahead of Sunday 27th October’s race. Show more images Result John McPhee 6th (+3.648) Result Ayumu Sasaki 13th (+13.308) “Maybe we went into the race expecting a little bit more, but we could see that John was just missing something on the exit of corners, and when he lost time to the front five he couldn’t close them down again. We should be happy with sixth because even though we were aiming for more, some days are just like that, and we’re leaving with points in the bag. Ayumu started 18th and finished 13th which is good because he was able to move forward and to fight for the top ten. We were hoping for a little bit more from him too but he improved all weekend and showed that he could get stuck into a battle, so let’s see what happens for both of them at Phillip Island.” “I was digging deep trying to catch the front group, but just losing out a little bit on the first part of the lap where I didn’t have a slipstream. I would close in on the pack ahead, then lose out again for the majority of the race. I dug deep after [Aron] Canet crashed in front of me and looking at my lap times after the race, I was matching the leaders’ pace - but I just couldn’t go one better and catch them. The main thing for me today is that a lot of the guys around me in the championship battle were either behind me or didn’t finish, so it was a race of damage limitation and the overall top three is still the target for us.” “Losing out on Saturday when it rained meant that our setting for the dry conditions today wasn’t good enough, and I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to in the race. We made some changes after warm-up to try and improve the bike, but it didn’t go the way we hoped and I couldn’t attack hard enough in the race. I made a good start but I hit a bit of a wall and had to work hard to maintain my pace and my position. The last few laps were an incredible battle for the top ten, but I made a little mistake that cost me a few places. Considering that the bike set-up wasn’t perfect, we can be positive about the result and aim to make some changes for Australia and improve there.” Moto3 Race Results - Grand Prix of Japan POS. RIDER NUM TEAM TIME 1 Lorenzo Dalla Porta 48 Leopard Racing 39'34.866 Source: SIC Racing Team Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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