Front row start for McPhee at crisp Le Mans

2020-10-13 08:06
Although the Le Mans circuit was graced with sunshine, the cold temperatures created tricky conditions for the Moto3 riders. PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s John McPhee battled back, after having his fastest lap deleted, to qualify third for the Grand Prix de France. Team-mate KIP fell victim to yellow flags and will start tomorrow’s race from 28th.

With bright sun and dry conditions, the times in FP3 were almost immediately quicker than those set yesterday. McPhee bided his time and set the eighth fastest lap on his final run, 1min 42.662secs, which saw him through to Q2. Despite having his initial Q2 lap disallowed for a yellow flag infringement, John was able to finish the session third with a 1min 41.846secs lap, which will see him start from the front row tomorrow.

Team-mate KIP had his work cut out, unable to take part in the final 15 minutes of FP3 due to a penalty from the Catalan GP. Not able to use the track at its fastest, KIP ended FP3 31st with a 1min 44.316secs lap. In Q1 the Malaysian’s flying laps were compromised by other riders’ crashes and he finished 14th with a 1min 43.640secs lap, which translates to 28th on tomorrow’s starting grid.

Tomorrow’s Moto3 Warm Up session will begin at 9am local time (3pm MYT), before the 22-lap race gets underway at 11.20am local time (5.20pm local time) – slightly later than normal.






John McPhee
3rd (1'41.846)





We knew that qualifying on the front couple of rows was really important today, as it can be quite difficult to pass on this track. I’ve been trying to be as smooth as possible and keep the left hand side of the tyre as hot as possible. We changed our strategy a little bit today, to go as soon as the green light came on, but the yellow flags messed that up for us. It meant we were in the same boat as always and had to go at the end of the session. I was a little bit nervous as the slipstream can give you a big help here, but in the end I did my lap time alone and I’m really happy with the pace. I had a couple of on the edge moments at the end of qualifying, but managed to keep it together and I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.

Source: SIC Racing Team

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