John McPhee made his Moto2 debut at MotorLand Aragón on Friday, standing in for his Petronas SRT teammate Jake Dixon.
Having spent FP1 familiarising himself with the Kalex machinery McPhee made good progress throughout the session, ending the morning with a 1’57.695 lap. The Scot was further able to improve in the afternoon’s FP2 session and reduced his lap time by 2.4secs, setting a best lap of 1’55.274 by the close of play.
Despite a turn 16 crash bringing his Friday to a conclusion three minutes earlier than planned the 27-year-old was pleased with his opening experience and hungry for more.
“I’ve enjoyed it so much today and had so much fun!” McPhee admitted from the Aragón paddock on Friday afternoon. “It has been a big learning curve and I feel like a sponge trying to absorb everything. I made a big step from FP1 to FP2 and went 2.4 seconds faster, so that’s good progress.
“I’m enjoying the bike a lot, although there’s still much to learn and improve. I’m hoping that if I keep doing that then I’ll be able to fight with some guys in Sunday’s race. I did crash in FP2, which is frustrating, and I’m sorry to the team. It wasn’t from pushing too much; I just braked a little bit too late into the last turn, went straight out and hit the kerb trying to get back onto the track.
“My target is to keep closing the gap to the others and I feel like I can still improve a lot just by altering the way I’m riding. If we continue improving and enjoy ourselves then I think it will be a successful weekend.”
