Petronas Sprinta’s John McPhee halved his Spielberg grid start to end the AustrianGP seventh on Sunday after fighting through the pack for a strong Moto3 points haul.
In a weekend that had seen the team surrounded by rumour and speculation, a good start allowed McPhee to hold 14th place on the opening lap. Making his way steadily up the order as the race unfolded, the Scot entered the top-10 by jumping three positions on lap six before working with his SRT teammate, Darryn Binder, to close the gap on the leaders at the mid-race stage.
The inter-team battle for position, however, ultimately left McPhee adrift of the riders ahead, with the 27-year-old ending the second visit to Austria seventh, just 1.331s from the winner.
“I’m happy with my efforts today, as I felt like we had to ride hard to finish where we did,” McPhee explained after the race.
“Coming from 14th on the grid, it was never going to be easy, but I managed to make my way forward without too much difficulty.
“We’ve seen that this circuit is really strong for other manufacturers, so we had our work cut out on the straights. Darryn and I were working together for the first half of the race, but I realised I had a little bit more pace and I was able to pull us back onto the group. Once we were there though it was difficult to make our way through, but I managed to get one at the end.
“To finish seventh today was a solid result, so I’m happy with that, and we’ve made a good step forward. I’m now looking forward to my home GP at Silverstone.”
