Johann Zarco had a difficult Indonesian Grand Prix, marked by a technical clutch issue that hampered his ambitions from the opening laps. Despite a good start, the French driver had to deal with this handicap, which forced him to manage his early stages cautiously to limit the damage. He lost valuable time as a result.
"At least four points. The start was okay, but my clutch slipped for the first two or three laps. I tried to loosen the clutch, even though, in general, the problem doesn't come from there, but it's a mechanical reflex to say that I'm trying to loosen, to relax the cable, Marini had that at Motegi. I was careful, I lost time, but I tried to see if it could regain grip, and it gradually started to pick up around the fourth lap, and suddenly I had lost time. I tried not to stress too much and to get back into the rhythm, and to do my best..." he says.
In a race where the sensations were not there, Zarco suffered from a lack of rear grip. A strange sensation that he had not observed during the test sessions. “The rear tire didn't behave well because I slid a lot, I lacked grip. It's hard to explain why. It's true that the pressure was quite high, which is strange given that I was alone and not on a fast pace. So, I should have been quite low. But as a result, it slipped a lot. I raced alone. At one point, I did quite a few laps in 31,5, and I saw this group in front, so I told myself that I couldn't be that slow…” emphasizes the Cannes resident. Despite these difficulties, Zarco finished twelfth thanks to a few incidents among his competitors and remains confident for the rest of the season.
© LCR Honda
Asked about his expectations for the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the venue that hosted his first MotoGP victory in 2023, Zarco focuses on the essentials: having fun riding the RC213v. “What do I expect from Phillip Island? I want to have fun riding. I hope the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the track. Because when it’s cold, it’s true that the right side is tricky. But yeah, really enjoy it. We had some really good discussions with the team and with Honda last night. So that gave me a lot of motivation…” He says.
With this new Honda, the settings are still to be found, and Johann Zarco feels that he must work to find his best sensations. "Technically, we may also have slightly different directions. But here, with this new bike, it doesn't pay off. Whereas with the old bike, maybe my style and the setup directions were to my advantage. Here, they certainly disadvantage me. We're trying to recreate a base because we know the rider is there..." concludes Johann Zarco.
