Petronas Sprinta Moto3 rider John McPhee revealed he is confident of his race pace and chances ahead of his home Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The Scot qualified on the outside of the second row in sixth position after electing not to run with the group of riders during the latter stages of qualifying. McPhee acknowledged that deciding not to run with the majority of the field is a risky strategy, but one that worked to an extent.

“I’m happy with the result because my race pace has been really strong all weekend but with so many long straights it can be difficult to set one flying lap at Silverstone,” said McPhee.

“Going out with only one other rider was always going to be a risky strategy, but it ended up being enough for the second row and that was the target. I feel like I can be really fast in the race but I had to be in the top six in qualifying, so now we’ve ticked that box, we can concentrate on tomorrow.”

The nature of the British circuit means that it will be hard for McPhee or anybody to break away at the front of the field, with the Brit expecting a classic Moto3 battle for the victory.

“Even though a few people have really good pace, it’ll be hard to break away from the group and we’re going to have a typical Moto3 fight,” he said.