Scotland’s John McPhee scored the fastest time so far of Qatar’s Moto3 test with his final lap of day two to head the standings three-tenths clear of the rest.
A steady start to the second day of testing saw the majority of the lightweight class circulating at a sedate pace while they worked through their settings programmes. 2020 Red Bull Rookies Cup Champion, Pedro Acosta, set the benchmark time to beat - a 2’05.980 - on his 12th revolution, trailed by Dennis Foggia, Carlos Tatay, Romano Fenati, and another equally impressive rookie performance, this time by reigning Moto3 Junior World Champion, Izan Guevara in fifth
Three hours of track time already under his belt for Saturday, McPhee rose to 12th with just 20 mins to go of the final session, albeit on only his 6th lap of the day, having previously circulated outside of the top-20, with teammate Binder for company in 23rd.
The closing 10 minutes saw the first attacks on the standings as Jaume Masia improved to third, igniting Foggia to make his move for the top spot, a dominance he sealed with both his 14th and 15th attempts at mid 2’05 pace.
In a similar vein to race weekends, the majority of the field sat in the pits until the closing minutes before heading back out on track en-masse.
The final flurry of activity saw Andrea Migno advance the times to second, just as teammate Filip Salac found fourth, the Snipers pair working together as they sandwiched KTM newbie, Acosta, but it was McPhee who would claim the final advantage. His 12th lap of the afternoon secured him Saturday’s crown with a 2’05.286 and just one minute remaining but with no other threats on the cards.
Tatay, Jeremy Alcoba, Masia and Fenati headed Guevara to round out the top-10 with Sergio Garcia and Ayumu Sasaki holding of McPhee’s Petronas teammate, Binder, as the South African improved to 13th overall at the flag. Niccolò Antonelli and Xavier Artigas claimed the final top-15 positions ahead of Deniz Öncü, Gabriel Rodrigo, Kaito Toba, Lorenzo Fellow and Ryusei Yamanaka.
