Moto3: McPhee hampered by qualifying performance

John McPhee has been left unable to do anything better than 20^th at Misano on the Saxoprint Peugeot, in a race that saw not only his Peugeot-branded Mahindra but all the Indian manufacturer’s machines struggling.

Admitting that he was initially penalised by a bad qualifying position, he was nonetheless able to pick up ten places to become locked in a battle with the factory machine of Francesco Bagnaia.

“The San Marino Grand Prix was a difficult weekend overall but it was nice to see that we became a little bit stronger during warm up and also in the race. It was really the same story as we’ve seen in the past that if we had a bad qualifying position it’s so difficult with this bike to come through.

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“I was riding with some fast guys like Bagnaia, a race winner and one of the strongest Mahindra riders for sure. I felt I could2 fight with him. However, again it proves that our bike doesn’t really work at this track because all the Mahindra and Peugeot riders were fighting together within one group with the points positions out of reach. Nevertheless, I think we didn’t a too bad job as we managed to find a good speed and I settled in a good rhythm too.”

More importantly for McPhee than the result, however, was the progress that the squad once again made with the bike. Building off the confidence of his Brno win and taking good steps forward with the machine, he says they’re getting there slowly.

“For the race we just made very small adjustments to the bike and in doing so we made some steps forward for sure. Again it showed that our chassis is working well but at this track it’s difficult to do the lap time. So for now we need to try and learn to understand from this weekend and look forward to Aragon.”

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