Johann delighted and amazed France last Saturday with his legendary pole position obtained at the Japanese Grand Prix. He made a brilliant start to the race on Sunday (see photo above) before at the end of the race his rear tire gave up any attempt at performance.
Zarco remained in fourth position for a very long time, behind Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci. But his rear tire then showed signs of fatigue. After setting his best time on the 14th lap in 1'57.6, the Tech 3 driver slowed down to 2'02.5. It was still 5 seconds slower per lap!
It was therefore not surprising in these conditions that Zarco was overtaken by the Suzukis of Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins, by his friend Jorge Lorenzo with whom he had exchanged a slight nudge at the start of the event, and by Alex Espargaro and his Aprilia.
But all that is already history, and the teams have already arrived in Australia. At the start of the year, Johann rode at Phillip Island during tests, and he did quite well there for a beginner with the fifteenth time at 1.1 behind. Maverick Vinales who then dominated the debates, with 0.2 ahead of Marc Marquez and 0.4 over Dani Pedrosa.
For his part, Zarco was 0.2 behind Valentino Rossi and 0.05 behind Danilo Petrucci, which was a good performance for a rookie.
According to Johann zarco, “The Australian Grand Prix is already coming up, immediately after Japan, and Phillip Island is a beautiful track that all the drivers love. I also like it a lot because it's very impressive to ride on it.
“I'm happy that we tested there at the start of the season when I was new to the bike, but now that I have more experience I'm curious to see how competitive I will be this time.
“We will see what happens with the weather, because it can be very cold in this region in October. So I'll manage, but the race in Japan was good, as was the whole weekend, so I have to stay on the right pace and hope for a good result in Australia. »
According to his team manager Hervé Poncharal, « Here comes the Australian Grand Prix which will be another interesting race for the entire Monster Yamaha Tech3 team.
“After the great qualifying performance and the start of the race from Johann Zarco, I expect another very good performance. Hopefully the weather will be dry this time and we know the Yamaha YZR-M1 is a consistently fast bike at Phillip Island. Therefore, everyone is waiting for the weekend with Johann.
“Due to the unfortunate illness of Jonas Folger, we will have a new driver joining Tech3. He is a local boy from Australia and his name is Broc Parkes, who is already a Yamaha and Monster Energy sponsored rider. He has already tested the M1 on Michelin tires on this track so everything will not be completely new for him.
“We are more than happy to welcome Broc and give him the opportunity to show his true potential. Obviously an Australian rider will bring more media attention to the team and that's something that's going to be exciting for us.
“Phillip Island is still a very special circuit that many MotoGP riders consider to be the best track in the world. It's amazing with fabulous scenery and there are lots of enthusiastic fans here in Australia too. So let's start Friday and hopefully the weather will be kind to us. »
Photo and source © Tech 3
