Le Tweet announcing possible transfer of Johann Zarco to Superbike riding a Honda was only of interest because it had been posted on the official championship account before being quickly deleted.
Since then, our interlocutors in the MotoGP paddock, generally very well informed, were all unanimous: " Ridiculous ! ", " We laughed a lot ! ", " No chance ! », etc.
Obviously, the question was asked directly to KTM from the early hours of the Catalan Grand Prix, and the response that made Jens Hainbach, vice president of road racing at KTM Factory Racing, at speedweek is unambiguous: " I do not know where it comes from. Who wrote this? We have a contract with Johann Zarco until the end of the 2020 season and we will honor it. Our main goal is to modify the bike so that Johann feels comfortable with it. We will achieve this. Johann will then obtain the results that we expect of him and that he expects of himself.”
Mike leitner, KTM team manager, adds: “I'm not saying anything because there is no basis. I can only assure you that our pilot knows nothing.”
The person himself was clear in affirming that there had never been any contact with the HRC regarding the Superbike World Championship and in protesting against this kind of rumor which could harm him vis-à-vis -vis his employer. “And the journalist who invented this has now quit his job” even added the French pilot.
Anyway, the article that originated the Tweet of the official Superbike website is still online…
More interesting, the French driver had a hopeful first day of the Catalan Grand Prix. He had 2 different machines, one of which was equipped with the full carbon swingarm that he already had Pol Espargaro and who has also just received theapproval of Dani Pedrosa.
Starting FP2 in the wake of a trio made up of Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci et Marc Márquez, Johann Zarco quickly rose to 4th position in the ranking, only 2 tenths from a Jack Miller then provisional leader.
The double Moto2 world champion then continued to work in Medium/Medium before experiencing a luckily minor fall in the last corner of the Catalan track.
Then he put on a Soft/Soft combination for a single and final attack lap which ended with a 12th place in 1'40.771, a little less than 7 tenths from the fastest, fabio quartararo.
The number 5 thus got closer to 4 tenths of his teammate Pol Espargaró and today seems able to avoid moving to Q1.
photo: MICHELIN
Johann zarco : “ultimately, the first day was good, because the gaps were really close and I was pretty good at it. In the afternoon, there were good improvements but also a fall, which was a shame. We still tried different things on the bike, in particular this carbon swingarm. Everyone has questions about it: yes, there are things that are better because it mainly offers more grip, but there are other problems for which we have not yet found the solutions. You have to remain patient to progress. Today, a top 10 was doable but unfortunately, in my fast lap, I completely missed my first corner, so we have to cross our fingers that maybe tomorrow we qualify directly for Q2.”
FP2 standings for the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
