Johann Zarco continues to enjoy a strong run in the MotoGP season. This Sunday, he finished 11th in the Japanese GP at Motegi, reaching that position on the last lap after Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) ran out of fuel right in front of him.
The #5 was pleased with the result and his error-free performance: ‘I’m happy with 11th place, it’s a good target for us and good points. The good thing of this race was that I didn’t make any mistake, so I could take advantage of others’ mistakes – above all in the first lap’.
Despite feeling comfortable behind Quartararo, Zarco admitted he couldn’t be faster than he was: ‘I was feeling quite good behind Fabio, I did almost the entire race behind Fabio, but I couldn’t go faster, because the front tyre pressure was also a bit high, and then you cannot slow down the bike’.
On the other hand, the LCR Honda rider explained that he wasn’t able to capitalize on the medium rear tyre as expected: ‘I expected something better from the rear medium tyre, and I didn’t get the advantage in the second half of the race as I expected. On Saturday with the soft, I could see I had an advantage compared to the others at the end of the Sprint, so I was thinking that maybe with the medium I would have an advantage in the second half, which I didn’t have. So, it was a bit hard to keep the pace, and then I knew Fabio would catch Aleix [Espargaró] and [Jack] Miller in the last laps, but it was also difficult to attack them’.