John McPhee concludes Motegi FP2 in top twenty after morning fall

John McPhee concluded Friday’s second free practice with a top 20 position at the Motegi circuit as the Japanese Grand Prix weekend got underway.

After cloudy weather with cool temperatures on the eve of round 15, conditions improved a lot for day one of practice at the Grand Prix of Japan. Teams and riders were greeted by sunny weather today to find almost perfect conditions to start their preparations for this weekend’s flyaway opener.

John McPhee from Scotland endured a problem this morning which was the reason that he had to report a fall to his crew, but the 22-year-old escaped harmless.

After this setback, McPhee recovered well during FP2 to make good progress, which resulted in significantly improved lap times. At the end of the day he narrowly missed the top 20 in the combined practice times, but he is confident due to a close gap to the front riders and foremost due to his knowledge that he is capable of doing well at the 4.8 kilometres long track in Motegi. The gaps between the riders were very close in general.

Moto3 action is set to continue with Saturday morning’s FP3 before the starting grid will be decided in qualifying at lunch time.

#17 John McPHEE, FP1: P29 – 2´00.052 (6/9) / FP2: P19 – 1´58.378 (13/13):
“Obviously the weekend didn’t start as planned as we had a small problem during FP1 and I had a crash. We lost valuable practice time but I’m ok. However, during free practice two we managed to make a step forward. We were able to use the good tyres to its utmost and also to solve this morning’s issue more or less. But most important, we could improve the lap time a lot and came much closer to the front. The position doesn’t look so good but lap time wise we’re not too far away and I already know from previous years that I can be fast at this track. So I look forward to tomorrow to try and make another step.”

Source: PEUGEOT MC SAXOPRINT