MotoGP Austria: McPhee ‘fast but work to do’

John McPhee’s 1’41.823 best placed the Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max rider third in the Austrian GP Moto3 times on Friday.

Having endured a challenging and wet first free practice on the revised Red Bull Ring layout, McPhee completed the morning frustrated with 26th and running 1’53.365 pace.

A dry afternoon proved more fruitful for the 28-year-old with his final lap of 16 securing his place in the top three, just 0.049s from the outright leader, Leopard’s Dennis Foggia.

“It was nice to finish today overall in P3,” McPhee said of his Friday progress. “In FP1 I didn’t have a good feeling on the bike, I was missing something.

“We were able to improve the feeling in the dry conditions although I still feel that maybe there are one or two points that we can work on for tomorrow, to make the lap time more comfortably.

“The good thing is that even with things not at 100 per cent we are still fast, so we have some work to do. Overall we are going in the right direction and I am happy to be at the front after the first day.”