John McPhee has been awarded a long lap penalty following his qualifying one antics which saw the PETRONAS rider cruising on the racing line.

PETRONAS Sprinta Racing rider John McPhee has been awarded a long lap penalty after riding slowly on the racing line.

McPhee found himself in the first 15-minute session for the second time in two races, and after a slow start, the Scotsman leapt up the order, putting himself in contention for Q2.

However, as the riders began their final tour of the Motorland Aragon circuit, McPhee got to the front of the charging pack, purposely riding slowly on the racing line, forcing his rivals to go around the number 17 Honda NSF250RW machine.

Gabriel Rodrigo, who was the only rider able to improve his time, showed his frustration, pulling alongside McPhee in the pitlane and made the Misano winner aware of his anger.

McPhee eventually secured a fourth row start, finishing the final Q2 session in 10th, however, the long lap penalty, which is located at turn eight and nine at the downhill corkscrew, will cost McPhee a lot of time – which isn’t what he needs on the back of a tough weekend.

Speaking after the session, McPhee said:

John McPhee, PETRONAS Sprinta Rider – 10th

It was a chaotic qualifying, but tenth is okay for tomorrow’s race. I made one good lap at the beginning, as a banker lap, but then every lap I did at the end of the session was interrupted by other riders. It was difficult to get a clean lap, but thankfully the start of the fourth row isn’t so bad around this track. We know we can work from there and we’re ready for tomorrow. I think there are two or three guys who have a really good pace, but at Aragón even if you have a good pace someone following can benefit more. I think it will be a big group for the majority of the race, with maybe a small breakaway in the final laps. Hopefully, we can be in that breakaway.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. For then riding slowly during Q2, the 26-year-old from Oban will miss the opening 15-minutes of FP2 action next Friday when Moto3 returns to Aragon for the Teruel round.

The Moto3 race gets underway tomorrow at 12:00 local time, what can McPhee pull out of the hat?

Featured image: PETRONAS SRT