John McPhee is excited to launch a podium battle on Sunday, starting from the front row of the grid aboard his PETRONAS Sprinta Moto3 Honda.

The Scott fired in a time in the dying moments of Q2, after his first run didn’t go “to plan” for the two-time Moto3 victor.

The Scott took advantage of the drying FP3 session to further set up his Moto3 machine should the race be mixed conditions on Sunday – and is confident he has the pace in both conditions.

McPhee’s best time of a 1:36.306, +0.029s off Fernandez’s pole time – with the championship leader, Albert Arenas in between.

John McPhee – P3

It was very tense in the last few minutes of qualifying! The first exit didn’t quite go to plan and I had half the field trying to follow me, which wasn’t ideal. To try and get some clear track to set my time in was difficult. When I finished my exit lap there was only time to do one flying lap. I did that lap more or less alone, there was a small group slightly further ahead and so I got a slipstream from Turn 1 to Turn 3, but the rest was alone. To do the time to be on the front row, basically on my own, shows we’ve got a really good pace ahead of tomorrow’s race. We seem to be in really good shape in both wet and dry conditions and I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.

Moto3 commences on Sunday at 11:00 local time for the 23-lap race in the Red Bull Ring.