John McPhee proved masterful in the wet conditions at Ricardo Tormo this morning concluding the final free practice session at the top of the times from Celestino Vietti and Ai Ogura.
Overnight and early morning rain presented a soaking wet track for the final Moto3 practice at Valencia this morning, the 40-minute session providing ample time for bike set up and tyre analysis but not conducive to fast times, allowing Friday’s top-14 to remain safe ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying push for pole.
McPhee - safe in 10th for the Q2 shootout - showed his wet-weather prowess by beginning the session at the top before Raul Fernandez took charge, Tatsuki Suzuki and Ogura joining them in the top-four for the opening 10 minutes.
As the times began to heat up, Fernandez remained confident, Suzuki and Ricardo Rossi challenging for second and third while Niccolò Antonelli and Tony Arbolino circulated in the top-five. McPhee returned to the track at the halfway stage, after a brief trip to the Petronas garage, looking to promote himself from 25th as Darryn Binder hit the top, fighting Jaume Masia for position as the second half got going.
The final 15 minutes found McPhee circulating on the edge of the top-10, in 12th, before continuing his rise to eighth and less than a second from the fastest times so far. Antonelli held the standings with ’12 to go, Ogura and Andrea Migno now in close contention as McPhee improved again, this time to fourth. Albert Arenas continuing his difficult weekend, down in 16th.
Five minutes to go and the pace continued to increase. Ogura advanced the benchmark at the front on his 18th lap as the track began to dry, McPhee challenging with three minutes to go as he took the top-spot with his 1’49.559 effort.
The closing minute saw Vietti rise to second, two-tenths behind the Scot but with the times still over four seconds slower than yesterday’s best, the Sky VR46 rider remained in control of the overall standings. Migno, Antonelli and Rossi concluded the top-six from a late-improving Arenas, however, the championship-leader faces a Q1 fight this afternoon, alongside Ogura, after a disappointing Friday performance.
