John McPhee endured a challenging second day at Silverstone after his Friday crash and a botched strategy put paid to his qualifying plans, leaving the Petronas rider 15th for the BritishGP.
Biding his time in FP3, McPhee waited until the final minutes to set his ultimate flying lap to maximise the best of the morning’s cold conditions and allow his battered back the chance to loosen up.
“Thankfully the pain isn’t too bad after the crash yesterday, I’m just a little tight in my lower back and it is affecting my movement on the bike a bit,” McPhee admitted. “Clinica Mobile are helping me as well, so hopefully tomorrow we’ll be even better.”
The Scot easily secured his place in Q2 with the seventh fastest time of the final free practice - a 2’11.978 - leaving him ninth overall but with the Petronas team strategy failing to go to plan in the first half of qualifying, the 27-year-old was left with just once chance at a flying lap as the session drew to a close.
Setting a 2’13.074 lap, McPhee will start his home GP from 15th, at the edge of the fifth row, and one place ahead of teammate Darryn Binder.
“Honestly I’m disappointed with Q2 because we had a strategy but it didn’t go to plan,” he explained. “I wasn’t sure where my pace was, due to the crash yesterday, so we decided to go out as a team today, rather than alone. It wasn’t ideal having only one lap at the end and it’s something we won’t be doing again.
“It is possible to do anything from 15th on the Moto3 grid, especially with a lap this long, so I’ll rest tonight and get prepared for tomorrow.”
