MotoGP Germany: Pawi cruises to wet Moto3 win; McPhee sixth

Idemitsu Honda’s Khairul Pawi dominated the wet Moto3 encounter at Sachsenring’s MotoGP round today, splashing across the line with an 11-second advantage despite an off-track excursion and double his 2016 win tally to two after a debut win in Argentina.

Scotland’s John McPhee was in the hunt for a podium right until the dying laps on his Mahindra but was eventually outpaced by Enea Bastianini and then lost out to Di Giannantonio on the run to the line, picking up sixth place.

McPhee is visibly happier with the new gearbox in the Mahindra and was at the sharp end all weekend, leading the race on lap five until Pawi and team mate Hiroki Ono started their charge to the front. Pawi was masterful in the wet conditions, taking just four laps to go from 20th on the grid to snatch the lead from McPhee, and at times was lapping three seconds faster than the pack towing Ono with him but the Japanese rider ran off track with 19 laps to go, and then crashed out two laps later.

Andrea Locatelli took up the running in second place and stayed there, crossing the line with a 2.228s advantage over Bastianini. The Italian made a slow start but came through to nick fourth from McPhee before inherting third as Ono went down.

McPhee fought back but eventually couldn’t live with his pace in the closing laps and found himself under attack from Jakub Kornfeil, who went past at turn 12 with four laps to go. Di Giannantonio then pressed McPhee for fifth place and stole it on the last lap.

Jorge Navarro, who is recovering from a broken leg, pinched seventh from series leader Brad Binder with Jules Danilo and Francesco Bagnaia completing the top ten.

Danny Webb, who is nursing an injured shoulder after an oil-induced highside yesterday which wrote off qualifying halfway through his first flying lap, ended in 22nd.