John McPhee issued his critics with a dominant reply in Friday’s practice for the German GP after heading the Sachsenring’s overall Moto3 times.

Despite Petronas relieving him of his Crew Chief in the run up to June’s second double-header, the Scot proved to be the one to beat in the hot conditions at the Chemnitz circuit.

With track temperatures running between 30 and 50℃ for the two practice sessions, McPhee showed that two years away from Sachsenring has not dented his speed, ending FP1 at the helm thanks to his final 1’26.739 lap.

Utilising the afternoon session for race prep on used tyres, he continued a strong rhythm, running at the head of the timings for the majority of the session before completing the final 40-minutes in 11th. His morning effort, however, could not be bettered and he ended the day fastest overall.

“It’s been a solid day and I’m happy with the progress we’ve made today,” McPhee said from the Sachsenring this afternoon.

“It was nice that we were able to immediately attack in FP1. We finished the session fastest overall and only seven-tenths off the lap record, which on a green track is great,” he continued.

“We spent all of FP2 on a used tyre, except for the final lap but I had to roll out of it because of yellow flags. We had really good race pace on these tyres so overall it’s been good.

“There are a couple of things to work on but we can use FP3 to try to find the best overall set up for qualifying. I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”