McPhee and KIP show inner strength at Brno

2020-08-10 08:11
John McPhee and Khairul Idham Pawi proved that they are made of tough stuff in today’s Moto3 race, with both riders able to put the two crashes experienced in yesterday’s qualifying behind them. An extremely strong ride from McPhee saw him advance from 18th to fifth, while KIP managed to battle through the pain to finish 22nd.

After crashing out of qualifying yesterday, the first task for McPhee was to stay safe in the bunched pack during the opening corners of the 18-lap race. The Scot managed to avoid any incidents and also picked up a couple of places in that first lap for good measure. Making his way through the field, it only took John five laps to make it into the top-ten. McPhee continued to make strong progress throughout the remaining laps to start challenging for the podium in the final six laps. Unfortunately John had used the best of his tyres in progressing through the field, which lost him vital seconds in the closing laps, and took the chequered flag in fifth. He stays third in the riders’ championship.

Team-mate KIP dug deep to complete the Moto3 race aboard his Honda NSF250RW, despite picking up a small fracture to the finger he broke last year. The Malaysian rider decided after the morning’s Warm Up session that he was fit enough to take part in the Grand Prix České republiky. Despite the pain and lack of feeling in his finger, KIP was consistently lapping at a similar pace to those further ahead of him and was able to finish the race in 22nd.

The PETRONAS Sprinta Racing team will now head straight to the Red Bull Ring – Spielberg in Austria for the next race of the season, which will take place next weekend (14-16 August).






Johan Stigefelt
Team Director





It was not easy for John to start from 18th on the grid, but we knew we had a good bike and he felt comfortable this morning. It was all about doing a good start and trying to work his way through the field as fast as possible. We’re happy with the fifth he achieved today, it’s important to get those points. It was a shame we weren’t fighting for the podium in the last lap, but with the crash yesterday we’re happy with the result.

With KIP also crashing in qualifying yesterday it wasn’t easy because he picked up an injury. He did a good job to finish the race today. We are really thankful for that and actually he was closing the gap to the front more than what he did in Jerez, which is really positive. Another hard one for him but we keep working and see what he can do in Austria next week.

Source: SIC Racing Team

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