Moto3: John McPhee storms to first win
John McPhee finally saw all his hard work and persistence pay off with a clean wet run at the Moto3 Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno, giving him a career first win.
The Peugeot MCSaxoprint man had qualified eleventh but had already shown his pace as the rain arrived topping warm-up. The Briton immediately set about making his way to the front and arrived in podium contention after just four laps.
McPhee's lead extended when Brad Binder and Khairul Idham Pawi crashed one after the other with five laps to go while running in the top three. His lead sat at over ten seconds but a wobble near the close of the race forced the Oban man to focus winning by a huge 8.8 second advantage.
Binder remains championship leader but after failing to collect points after falling while leading his advantage is cut to 61 points.
Jorge Martin was the early race leader but found himself forced down to fourth, the falls ahead handed him hs best finish to date in second for Aspar Mahindra.
The final podium spot went to Fabio Di Giannantonio, the Gresini rider accepting Pawi's invitation for a follow and getting pulled to the leaders stayed upright for a third rostrum finish in his rookie season.
His team-mate Enea Bastianini pulled of a late surge for fourth ahead of Ongetta-Rivacold rider Niccolo Antonelli who also kept his composure in the wet.
Home hero Jakub Kornfeil (Drive M7 SIC) fought bravely for sixth, just keeping the rapid Bo Bendsneyder at bay, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rookie impressing from a 24th place grid start.
A second adrift of that battle, Austria winner Joan Mir was next to finish for Leopard in eighth, leading a big group of riders all battling for that position. Nicolo Bulega was next to take the flag for Sky Racing VR46 in ninth ahead of Jorge Navarro, who narrowed the championship gap slightly to Binder with a tenth place finish for Estrella Galicia.
Ongetta man Jules Danilo took the flag in eleventh, with the second Sky bike piloted by Andrea Migno twelfth.
The remaining points on offer went to Tatsuki Suzuki (CIP) in 13th, Livio Loi who recovered from his late fall for RW Racing in 14th and Philipp Oettl (Schedl GP Racing) in 15th.
Czech Wild-card rider Karel Hanika just missed out in 16th at the chequered flag.
Gabriel Rodrigo was the first to fall in the tricky conditions, after a few warnings having him out of the seat Aron Canet was next to meet the gravel while battling for the podium spots with eleven laps remaining.
Adam Norrodin crashed out next, Albert Arenas walked away holding his shoulder while Livio Loi and Francesco Bagnaia also fell at the same time in separate incidents. Stefano Valtulini and Andrea Locatelli soon joined.
