After seeing victory slip away from him by less than half a second in two of the last three races, it is a Johann Zarco fully pumped up in the fresh air of the Alpilles who is taking off today for the Austin circuit in Texas, the preserve of Marc Marquez who will be keen to take revenge for his disappointment in Argentina.
A priori, and in these conditions, winning in the USA seems an impossible task for the Tech3 driver, but what would the competition be like if the dream was absent? After all, Marc Marquez had all the cards in hand to triumph at Termas de Rio Hondo, and he didn't bring home any points...
Johann zarco, 3rd in the championship: “The Circuit of the Americas is a very beautiful track, although it is physically very hard, and I think it is perhaps even one of the most technical circuits of the year, because we have 20 corners and it's not easy to go there very quickly. But after the great podium in Argentina, I am still very happy with the sensations that I was able to obtain with the bike and I hope to find this feeling again from the first practice session on Friday in order to prepare for the race in the best possible way and to be able to fight for another podium. Why not also think about our first victory? I want to dream about it and live this dream to the fullest.”
Hervé Poncharal: “Certainly, we left Termas de Río Hondo with incredibly good and warm feelings, because the weather and track conditions were very difficult to control, and I believe that the team and especially the drivers did an exceptional job . Johann fought in the leading group and finally finished second, which was his first podium in 2018. He had a very strong race and gave us all a really good feeling. Hafizh also did an extraordinary job to finish in the points for the second race in a row, with many fast and more experienced drivers behind him. The few days of rest we've had since then have been just good enough to finally recover from these incredible emotions and we are now ready to start racing in Austin, Texas, which is a beautiful track, but also technical, and probably the one of the most difficult circuits in the championship. Johann had a very strong race there last year, after battling with Cal Crutchlow. We know it's not the easiest circuit for our machine, but so far everything is working well between the bikes, the riders and the team, so we are confident we can fight again in the group of head. The weather looks pretty stable, although Saturday might be a little rough. Either way, this means we will have enough time in the dry to properly set up the bike, which is important. Yamaha always gives us incredible support there, we are part of the family. It's fantastic to have so many friends and people who always come to support us in terms of logistics and organization. This is a GP where we would like to provide all these people with a great result. We are ready for this, we love Austin and Texas, the people are always so helpful. For Hafizh it will be a difficult mission again, since he will have to discover the track with MotoGP, but he has so much enthusiasm and adrenaline, which allows me to be sure that he will fight for positions similar to those of Argentina. We are ready to put on a good show, to please American MotoGP fans and especially Yamaha USA, who has always been an incredible partner.”
