John McPhee went from almost quitting to the top step of the Malaysian Moto3 podium on Sunday after a dramatic fightback from 22nd. A disastrous weekend, in what has literally been a back-breaking and continuously challenging season, turned on a sixpence on Sunday as McPhee wrestled his Sterilgarda Husqvarna from the eighth row of the Sepang grid to victory with a sensational recovery.
Having advanced through the pack to the top five with four to go, the Scotsman continued to stun on the last lap with a move from fifth to first at the penultimate corner, a position he defended until the flag with teammate Ayumu Sasaki second. “I don’t know what to say,” McPhee admitted as the celebrations subsided. “It has been the toughest season of my career.
It’s not been easy. I’ve been underperforming and struggling and not able to get the results I’ve been wanting and especially this weekend has been really, really tough but we worked hard at it.
We changed a lot of things, even after warm up, for the race we changed a lot of things and I just had the determination.“Yesterday I was really, really down about everything.