Petronas Sprinta’s John McPhee will start Moto3’s SpanishGP from the second row after a tight qualifying session at Jerez saw the Scotsman secure sixth place.

After focusing on race pace throughout Friday, McPhee needed to end FP3 with a good lap to secure his place in Q2, and the number 17 had no trouble achieving his goal. Repeatedly running in the top-10 thought the 40-minutes practice, he ultimately posted the third fastest time of the session, and overall, - a 1’45.598 - in the final minutes. 

Despite starting the second Moto3 qualifying session in a strong third position, thanks to his 1’46.185 time, the Petronas rider was unable to improve in the closing stages. Having opted to pull out of his final flying lap, the Scot’s earlier effort remained enough to secure a sixth place start for Sunday’s 22-lap race, from the second row of the grid.

“It’s been a solid day today and we’ve been able to focus a little bit more on our one-lap pace, to see what we can do on the time attack” McPhee explained after qualifying concluded. 

“After the good work that we did yesterday on the used tyre, it made my life quite a bit easier to have that stability and feeling of fresh rubber underneath me today, when it came to pushing for a quick lap, so I’m happy with the work done over the last two days. 

“Starting from the front two or three rows is always the target, so to start from sixth is a great spot for the race tomorrow and I’m looking forward to the battle. Hopefully we can be there fighting at the front. We know Moto3 is always a tough race but I think we’re ready and prepared.”