John makes solid start in mixed conditions at Assen

Round eight of this year’s Moto3 world series got underway today under dark clouds in the morning so for this id didn’t come surprisingly that some drizzling showers interrupted the opening free practice session for a while but track conditions were just slightly damp so nobody of the Moto3 entry list continued either with rain tyres nor setting.

Meanwhile, both riders in Peugeot Motocycles SAXOPRINT, John McPhee and teammate Alexis Masbou, showed their ambitious mood as they set competitive lap times in somewhat of tricky conditions. The conclusion of the opening session showed a pleasant result with both finishing FP1 in the top 15 – Masbou in 13th and McPhee in 12th position respectively. So this was already a clearly sign that Peugeot Motocycle SAXOPRINT is definitely taking benefit from their test two weeks ago in Barcelona.

However, whilst 21-year-old John, who was in charge at the time of said test, was able to carry on his strong performance during FP2 at lunch time to finish day one at the historic TT Circuit in Assen in P15 of the combined standings. The Scottish rider set a blistering pace, competitive throughout the session to end up with a gap just half a second off today’s best marker.

The smaller cylinder class action is set to continue Saturday morning with the final free practice session. The starting grid for Sunday’s Moto3™ TT Assen will decided at lunch time with the all-important qualifying practice. For the very first time during the Dutch GP, the races take place on Sunday.

#17 John McPHEE (FP1: P12 – 1´46.723 (4/6) / FP2: P15 – 1´43.618 (15/15)):
“Well, I feel it was a very positive day as we ended up both session in the top 15 and the gap to the front is very small which of course is the main focus at the moment for us. Ok, 15th position is still not where I want to be but as said the most important thing is how close we’re to the front. I feel confident with the bike and we don’t have so many issues so I think the test in Barcelona is showing that it helped us now enormously. So we just need to continue this way and try to improve again for tomorrow.”

Source: Peugeot MC SAXOPRINT