John McPhee completed the three-day Moto3 test sixth overall having set a career-best lap at the Qatar track.
Claiming the fastest time on Saturday, and the second fastest for the opening day, McPhee ended the official test sixth in both Sunday’s results and the combined times, with an impressive average pace sitting him firmly in contention heading into the start of the 2021 Moto3 season.
After a longer than normal winter break, McPhee showed good speed and rhythm throughout the three-days of the Qatar Test, while helping his new team-mate Darryn Binder get to grips with the intricacies of the Honda.
The Scot racked up 91 laps across the event’s 10-hours on track and despite posting his best ever lap time around Losail on Sunday, a 2’4.887, concluded the only official pre-season test sixth overall.
“We continued to work our way through our test plan today” McPhee explained “focusing on two key things to try and understand what’s working on different areas of the track. I think we’ve got a good understanding of where we’re at with the setting.
“I was happy with my lap time because it’s my fastest lap ever at Qatar and I even came across someone riding slow on their out-lap, so there’s potential to go even faster. I’m really happy with our race pace as well. Overall it’s been very productive and we’ve tried a lot of different things. We’ve found a lot of things that work and also found some areas where if we’re struggling, we know how to improve it.”
Petronas Team Director, Johan Stigefelt continued: “We came with the aim of preparing ourselves for the first race in Qatar and it’s been a good three days. We’ve been going through a lot of things during the test, both riders have been following their test programmes and I think we’ve shown from day one that we have a very strong rider line up.
“John has been focusing a lot on the chassis and suspension settings and it’s clear what direction we want to go with him. He was fast when alone on track and had a good pace and I think he can be strong next week at the first race.
“We need to be strong in Qatar because it’s a track that suits us, but we know many of the riders are fast and there’s going to be stiff competition. I think we have seen from these sessions that both riders can work together and we hope that will continue all year. I’m very happy and I can’t wait for next weekend.”
