John McPhee continued to shine as a wet-weather master by taking his first Moto3 pole position of 2020 in determined style after heavy showers and unpredictable track conditions made for a dramatic qualifying at Circuit Ricardo Tormo this afternoon.

Wet conditions in FP3 prevented any improvements to Friday’s times, guaranteeing an automatic Q2 promotion for McPhee with his 10th place best, so the Scotsman set about gathering valuable data throughout the morning.

A strong performance from the start saw McPhee head the early times before returning to the top as the 40-minute session reached its conclusion, his 1’49.559 lap holding off Celestino Vietti by two-tenths as his confidence grew.

Heavy rain hit again just as qualifying began with multiple riders succumbing to the conditions throughout the final 15-minute shootout but that didn’t deter the Scot from repeatedly setting the fastest lap time of the session.

His final effort - a 1’52.252 – saw him three-tenths clear of the eventually reinstated Raul Fernandez, claiming the seventh Moto3 pole position of his career and his third with the Petronas team.

“It’s a really nice feeling to take our first pole position of this year, especially with the conditions today,” said McPhee.

“It was a tricky session for us because we thought we were on the ball, with the conditions looking like it was going to be dry we had the bike fully ready to go with slick tyres and dry setting.

“Then part way through Q1 we saw that it was getting wet and we didn’t know whether to go half-half or full wet. When the rain started to come down we went with a full wet bike, so it was a good call by the team to do that.

“It was difficult because the first couple of laps it was not so wet but then lap-by-lap there was more and more water to a point at the end of the session where there was actually quite a lot of standing water.

“Thankfully we had scrubbed the tyre in during FP3, which really helped us be up to speed in the first few laps. It was hard to improve but we got a really good banker in at the beginning and then managed to improve again at the end, which I was more happy with - because like I said, with more water it was more difficult.

“Overall we’ve been strong in all conditions. In the very small dry time we had, where it wasn’t fully dry, we were strong as well so I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think we can have a good day.

“We don’t know what weather to expect tomorrow but we’ve got a good base setting on the bike, so I think we can be fast whatever the weather. I think it’s going to be an exciting day.”

“When you look at the Championship with there being so many guys who have the possibility to win, I think anything is possible. There’s three races to go and 75 points up for grabs, so we’ll be trying to get as many of them as we possibly can.

“Like I said, we’ve been strong in all conditions and starting from the pole position tomorrow will give us the best possible chance with little dry track time so we’ll dig deep, get as many points and see where we are come Portimao.”