Moto3 Algarve FP3: John McPhee leads heading into qualifying

John McPhee was the fastest rider going into Moto3 qualifying later today.

John McPhee was the quickest lightweight class rider after the three free practice sessions, the Scottish rider broke his way into the 1:47’s coming 0.300 seconds off the lap record set here earlier this year looking strong as qualifying beckons. He led title fighter Dennis Foggia by a mere 0.055 seconds as Foggia aims to cut down the championship lead of Pedro Acosta even further and push the championship another round to Valencia, he is joined by his 2022 teammate Tatsuki Suzuki in the top three of the session.

Coming home in fourth 0.251 seconds back from McPhee is Romano Fenati who was unable to improve his lap time in the FP3 session however his quickest FP2 time was enough to ensure a Q2 spot with Izan Guevara the fifth fastest man ahead of Filip Salac, the pair split by 0.004.

Title leader Pedro Acosta finished up in P7, he won here earlier this year and won the Junior World Championship race last year, even going as far as saying Portimao is one of his favourite tracks, no doubt he will be gunning for the victory tomorrow relying on his fellow Red Bull KTM teammates to beat Foggia further down the order and ensure he is champion, this includes Ayumu Sasaki just behind him in P8.

Rounding out the top 10 were Andrea Migno and Brad Binder with returnee Sergio Garcia in P11 and Jaume Masia in P12. Big shout out to Joel Kelso who has improved his time by 1.5 seconds to finish in P19, handing him a shot at progressing to Q2 later this afternoon.

Full results –