John 13th on “satisfactory” day one practice sessions at Assen

PETRONAS Sprinta Racing ended the first day of the Dutch GP with John McPhee 13th and teammate Ayumu Sasaki 24th in the combined Moto3 standings, after both riders worked on their race pace in preparation for Sunday’s race at Assen.

In FP1, John finished eighth with a time of 1min 43.134secs. The Briton devoted practice to accumulating the maximum number of laps possible and setting long runs with a focus on pace, opting to reserve his preferred set of soft tyres for FP3 and Qualifying on Saturday.

In the afternoon John was quicker and finished in 13th position thanks to a best time of 1min 42.385secs, securing a provisional spot in Q2.

Tomorrow the PETRONAS Sprinta Racing riders will try to seal a place in Q2 during FP3. Qualifying for the Dutch GP will take place at 12:35pm local time (Q1) and 1pm (Q2).

#17 John McPhee
“The main objective today was to achieve a good race pace. We know we can be fast here and that’s why we saved our tyres as much as possible for tomorrow, both for FP3 and for Qualifying. I only used one set of soft tyres today, and I did a long run with those. I’m happy with my pace, especially when the tyres start to wear. Even when working on pace, I managed to get into positions that would earn me a spot in Q2, and that’s positive. The day has been satisfactory.”