A fall never comes at a good time (!) but the one suffered by Johann Zarco on the fifth lap of the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin could not have come at a worse time!
The Frenchman, who, let us remember, led the world championship after the two races in Qatar, generally remained in the title race until the summer break. The return to school was more difficult, both psychologically with Jorge Martin's victory in Styria and physically because of the compartment syndrome that appeared on his right forearm.
Rather than waiting for the end of the season, the Pramac driver therefore took the bull by the horns and had surgery directly after Misano, in order to approach the last races of the season with new physical capabilities, and therefore a mentally also strengthened.
And, despite a very short convalescence period, it seemed to work wonderfully since in Austin the Ducati #5 was constantly at the forefront: P3 in FP1, P8 in FP2, P4 in FP4 to reach a 6th place on the starting grid allowing us to hope for at least a top 5.
After the fall came to wipe out this rebound, Johann Zarco's disappointment lived up to his hopes of doing well, and he preferred to cancel his usual debriefing by videoconference to have the following message transmitted via the attaché press release from the Pramac Racing team.
Johann zarco : “I am very disappointed with this day! I felt pretty good, even until the warm up, then I missed the start because I had a bit of slippage on the grid. Then, after a few laps, I was able to find a good rhythm but I was surprised by the crash in turn 1. So I am very disappointed with that because after the surgery the arm was responding quite well and I was so very optimistic for the race. Clearly it didn't end the way I wanted and I now have two weeks to really recover even better in terms of my arm and my physical condition in order to finish the last three races as well as possible, but first of all to do well in Misano where we will return after just a month. But I think it will be good. »
The Frenchman is now in 5th place in the championship (see ranking below).
MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas results:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
