MotoGP, Valencia Day 3, Johann Zarco (Honda/12) finishes as the best Honda rider despite a penalty

Johann Zarco managed to finish as the best Honda rider of the season after a GP in which he was penalized.

Johann zarco He experienced a chaotic Grand Prix in Valencia and didn't finish his season the way he would have liked. Qualifying in 11th position, he got off to a decent start but then completely misjudged his line a few corners later and hit Francesco Bagnaia, who ended up crashing into the gravel. Quickly penalized by Race Direction, he had to complete a long lap penalty and found himself second to last after serving it.

From then on, he worked his way up lap after lap, eventually reaching 12th place, benefiting from numerous crashes and retirements ahead of him. Naturally, number 5 was disappointed at the finish. “I’m not really happy. The start wasn’t too bad, but I struggled in the first few corners. I saw Fabio having trouble getting his forks loose, so I wondered if he had a mechanical problem because he couldn’t get it loose in two corners. I thought I should overtake him quickly in case he had a mechanical issue, and when I tried to overtake him between turns 3 and 4, I saw that I was almost going to hit Binder. To avoid Binder, I straightened up and it was Pecco I passed.”, he explained on the microphone of Canal +.

“I lost a lot of time and I suspected that, given the contact, I was going to get a penalty, and indeed I did. Once it was over, I found myself practically last, so I told myself I just had to wait and find my rhythm. The lap times weren't bad, but it's just that I'm not managing the bike the way I'd like to. I rode my race, waited, and gradually moved up the field. I know I can manage the tire; I know how to manage everything, but I don't have the speed to fight, so I'm gutted at the end of this race. I couldn't expect anything spectacular; I said a top 10 finish was achievable on merit.”

"We needed to finish seventh to score nine points." [so that Honda can change its dealership category, editor's note.]"So much the better, Marini did it, so that's one objective achieved for Honda. We'll see how to progress next year. This year started very well at the beginning, then there were quite a few disruptive elements and that made me lose my way. You can't take away the victory at the French Grand Prix, it was unique, but having more consistency over a season, especially when there are 22 Grands Prix, is a bit of a boost. Not feeling capable of fighting, for me, that's no fun."

Johann zarco had arrived in Valencia with the hope of finishing in the top 10 of the championshipBut that was without taking into account the incredible form of Raúl Fernández, who finished on the podium, nor Brad Binder's good weekend. Ultimately finishing 12th, he nevertheless became the best Honda rider, which remained his main objective for the season.

"I had even forgotten about it."he confided, still hot from his race. “I had announced that, this year, if we did everything right we could be in the top 10 and I finished 12th. It’s true that Binder finished his season well, and especially Raúl Fernández has been racking up podium finishes, he’s won, and he finished second today, so it wasn’t possible to beat him for the top 10, but in the end I wasn’t far off what I had predicted.”

The French driver will be back on track on Tuesday for the first pre-season test before the winter break. "We're going to focus on doing the job, let's say. We're not going to do a lot of laps, but we'll do a lot of runs and get into a mindset where we try a lot of things and give the clearest possible feedback to try and make the bike progress."he concluded.

Results Grand Prix Valencia MotoGP 2025 :

Classification credit: MotoGP.com