MotoGP Catalunya: ‘Everything going in the right direction’ for McPhee

Sterilgarda Husqvarna’s John McPhee enjoyed a strong seventh place finish in the Catalan Moto3 GP on Sunday.

His third race back from injury saw the Scot initially struggle outside the top ten before working his way through the leading group. Friday’s dedicated test day paid off for the 27-year-old as he found good pace and comfortable feeling with the rear of his FR250 despite the challenging Barcelona surface, setting the fourth fastest lap of the race on his way to collecting nine championship points.

Teammate Ayumu Sasaki was also seen visiting the box on race day as his recovery from a fractured collarbone continued.

“I felt quite good on the bike,” McPhee said from Spain. “I felt that my pace was good, and I thought that the work we have done on Friday really helped with the feeling on the rear of the bike.

“When I had clear track in front of me and could push, my pace was really strong and I felt really, really good. I had the biggest problem in braking in a tussle. I think overall P7 is a solid result, not where we want to be of course, but we were only three seconds from the victory.

“The good point is we know where we have improved, and we know what we need to improve. Everything is going in the right direction.

“At Le Mans I was physically destroyed after the race and in Mugello I have only done half the race distance and felt very tired,” he admitted. “I am definitely not at 100 per cent, but today I am feeling a little bit better. The braking phase needs to be improved, but today went quite well.

“The speed is there, the lap time is there, and whenever I am alone and running at my own pace we were really fast. We just need to be able to fight more. Next races are Sachsenring and Assen, so not flowing tracks.