Johann Zarco did not finish the MotoGP Americas Grand Prix Sprint race. The LCR Honda rider struggled to be competitive, like the other riders from the Japanese manufacturer, and ended up crashing out.
The Frenchman admitted that he has a worse bike base than he expected, reaching the limit: ‘Even if we can try to make some progress, we are too far away and on Saturday morning I understood. I expected to have a much better base at the beginning of the year, but it seems that the base reaches a limit. I need to stay calm and at least try‘.
Regarding yesterday’s Sprint race, Zarco commented: ‘During the Sprint race, the only goal was to be able to overtake riders, fight a bit, maybe try to block the riders in front of me, and I tried to do it because I made very good overtakes. But as soon as the others had this pace below 2m04s, I couldn’t follow. I really tried; even with [Álex] Rins, you can see that he was riding almost like last year, but he couldn’t be very fast. But he was at least 0.5s faster than me, and 0.5s every lap, you try to follow, but then you reach a limit‘.
The crash ended Zarco’s race, who explained the incident and downplayed the consequences: ‘I crashed in turn 6. It wasn’t a dramatic crash, because I was trying to lean a bit more to have a better turn and I locked the front. And I didn’t lose anything, because in the Sprint race if you want at least points, you have to finish ninth. The Sprint is really to test things and keep the fighting spirit. Work on this to be ready when the bike is ready‘.
