Scotland’s John McPhee has bagged his debut Moto3 podium at the Indianapolis MotoGP in a chaotic race which saw Belgian Livio Loi take his first victory by 39 seconds as rain fell before the lights went out.
A majority of the grid started the race, which had been declared wet by race direction, started on rain tyres but the track had dried appreciably and Loi, who began on slicks, hit the front after four laps as pitlane got very busy with riders coming in to change tyres.
McPhee had been in after the sighting lap and changed to slicks but he was penalised by officials and had to come back in after the race started for a ride-through penalty but he was already making progress as the front-runners, which included series leader Danny Kent, came in as wets proved unmanageable. Kent’s crew took a long time to make the tyre switch and he lost an extra 30s over his rivals.
Loi went about his business lapping three or four seconds slower than the likes of Kent but his lead was so huge that the only person that was going to beat him was himself. Kent himself set the fastest lap of the race with a 1'41.449 after his stop but his team admitted they pitted him a lap too late and he could only find the pace to finish in 23rd.
The drama wasn’t finished though, as the rain returned with two laps to go but Loi was able to keep his head as riders further down the field came through to unlap themselves and buzzed the 18-year-old as they did it. Philipp Oettl took third place after pitting early and Romano Fenati fourth, some 17s behind the German. Isaac Vinales rounded out the top five.
Kent only dropped a handful of points to Enea Bastiannini as the Italian, who is second in the championship stakes, finished in sixth place.
