Front row qualifying for "surprised" McPhee

The Scot earns his first front row start of the season at COTA

John McPhee (CIP – Green Power) has had a difficult start to the 2018 season, however the 23-year-old managed to put his KTM machine on the front row of the grid at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.

Despite being no stranger to the front row or podium, the number 17 was a little surprised to be P3 on the grid. “It’s a little bit of a surprise to be back here because the first two races we’ve been a little bit far and all this weekend so far we’ve not been near the front, so we’ve been working really hard,” said an up-beat McPhee. “I need to say thank you to KTM and to my team because we’ve managed to turn what hasn’t been an easy weekend into a front row start so yeah really really happy. The conditions were difficult, is was the same for everybody but we managed to make two laps at the end that were really strong and put us up there for the front row so it’s great because now tomorrow in the race we can try to understand what we’ve learnt from this practice and try and fight for the win tomorrow.”

The Moto3™ veteran will be looking to get his second win in the lightweight class in Sunday’s race, and hopes this weekend can be the turning point in his season. “The last two races have been a disaster to say the least,” admitted the KTM rider. “We’ve had the speed, we’ve always been there and more or less had the speed but not so much luck so hopefully this is the turning point and tomorrow we’ll do our best to score as many points as possible.”

Can the flying Scot fight for the podium when the lights go out? Tune in to the Moto3™ race at 11:00 local time (GMT -5).