Maiden Pole For McPhee After Kent Penalty

Oct 17, 2015
2 min read

Scotland's John McPhee secured his first career pole position following a grid penalty for champion elect Danny Kent.

McPhee had initially qualified in second place behind title leader and felow British rider Danny Kent, but Kent was later penalised with a six place grid penalty for riding slowly on the racing line in the third practice session. Danny Kent had initially claimed pole position with a 1m36.180s lap ahead of what could potentially be the weekend he claims the Moto3 championship. Kent instead will start the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island from seventh but with his title rival Enea Bastianini struggling throughout the weekend so far and only qualifying 29th, it is very likely Kent will out-score Bastianini to be crowned champion on Sunday.

Miguel Oliveira, the only other rider who could deny Kent the title this weekend but would need to score 15 points more than Kent, will start second after securing his sixth front row start of the season. Kent's Leopard Racing teammate Efren Vazquez will line up on the outside of the front row. Jorge Navarro, Romano Fenati and Livio Loi make up the second row whilst Kent will lead row three following his penalty.

Maria Herrera had qualified an impressive eighth but also received a penalty and will instead start 11th. Therefore, Jakub Kornfeil, Brad Binder and Isaac Vinales complete the top 10 for Sunday's race at Phillip Island. On his return from injury, Fabio Quartararo will start a respectable 22nd on the grid although the young rider had qualified 19th but received a three place penalty for riding slow on the racing line in the first practice session. There was also a three place penalty for the same incident for Leopard Racing's Joan Mir who is substituting this weekend for the injured Hiroki Ono. Mir, however, will start an impressive 18th on the grid.

There was quite a horrible looking crash for Remy Gardner, Niccolo Antonelli and Francesco Bagnaia at turn six only ten minutes into the session and the riders will start the race from 29th, 17th and 30th respectively.

Moto3 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Results Top10:

POLE - Danny KENT, 1m36.180s*

2nd - John MCPHEE, +0.360s

3rd - Miguel OLIVEIRA, +0.426s

4th - Efren VAZQUEZ, +0.513s

5th - Jorge NAVARRO, +0.525s

6th - Romano FENATI, +0.642s

7th - Livio LOI, +0.762s

8th - Maria HERRERA, +0.780s**

9th - Jakub KORNFEIL, +0.831s

10th - Brad BINDER, +0.954s.

*Kent penalised six places for riding slowly on racing line in FP3, starts 7th.