MotoGP Catalunya: McPhee uses Friday ‘as a test’

John McPhee used the opening day of the Catalan GP as a test for his Sterilgarda Husqvarna rider securing 20th in Friday’s Moto3 times.

Having jumped straight back on to racing on his return from injury, and with only one race under his belt at the start of the season, McPhee has had little time to develop and improve the FR 250 GP. The Scot, therefore, chose to utilise Friday’s running at Barcelona to work through a test programme.

Good improvement between the first and second free practice sessions, allowed McPhee to improve his best lap by just over half a second with a final 1’49.854 effort sitting him 20th in the combined standings. But with cooler conditions expected in Saturday’s FP3 he is confident the best is yet to come.

“We used today as a test day,” McPhee explained from Spain on Friday evening. “It’s important because I did two races after my return to Le Mans. In the last two races I realised that there is still a lot to do to improve my riding, coming back after such a long time off.

“It was important to not really touch the bike and just let me ride, so today, after the race in Mugello, we decided to test something different.

‘In the test we have done we have achieved something positive and also something negative. I think in the lap time I improved by half a second in the afternoon, so there is definitely still some room for improvement so we will dig in tomorrow.

“Some were able to do a good lap in FP1, but the track was quite dirty. In FP2, it was quite greasy because it was so hot, so I think FP3 will be definitely the fastest session of all.”