This Sunday June 5, 2022, Johann zarco answered questions from journalists from the Catalunya-Barcelona circuit at the end of the Catalan MotoGP Grand Prix at the end of which he obtained an unexpected podium.
As usual, we report here the words of Johann zarco without the slightest formatting, even if it is partially translated (vouvoiement in English, tutoiement in French).
Johann, like Jorge Martín you avoided chaos in the first corner. Can you tell us what you think about what happened with Takaaki Nakagami?
Johann zarco : " It was very hard! Rins made a good start and was on my left. I expected him to try to brake late and widen a bit because he's used to being strong on that. But when I saw Nakagami who was coming too fast on the brakes, like Jorge (Martín) said, maybe he was going to widen, but it was even worse, he lost the front. Now I could see on the video that Pecco had crashed because “Taka”'s head had hit his rear wheel. When I saw those three drivers out, he was happy to take the apex of turn 1 and I think I was fifth after that. Pol Espargaró was in front of me and I was able to overtake him immediately at turn 5. From there I tried to be fast enough and catch Alex and Jorge Martin. Fabio escaped and he was very fast. I was the only one with the hard rear tire and expected to have an advantage during the race. So I controlled the rear tire so as not to spin too much, hoping to have an advantage, or for it to remain constant while the others deteriorated. But it was the opposite because, at the end of the race, maybe five laps before the end, I couldn't even stay close to Aleix and Jorge Martin under acceleration. I was losing the podium and I couldn't fight for it. I was frustrated that I didn't have the chance to fight! But P4 was good enough, another good result, then the surprise of the last lap: I also thought he had a technical problem but when I saw him raise his arms I thought he was celebrating and I just tried to stay focused and finish the race. So it’s a nice gift because it had been a good weekend. I was hoping to have an advantage with the rear tires and I didn't get it, but at least a podium is a good place. »
How long did it take you to refocus and were you afraid that he would take the podium back from you?
« Yes, I really thought he was going to fight again, but I saw on the video that it took him a long time to realize the race wasn't over. I was struggling a lot with the rear tire, so on the last lap I tried to be quick and tighten the lines to block him, because I didn't know where he was. As for concentration, Jorge Martin helped me because I had doubts whether the race was over or not, and when I saw Jorge continue to attack, I said to myself "even if it's over, I continue to attack too” (laughs). Maybe if I had also seen Fabio celebrating… (laughs). Maybe during braking I lost a little concentration, but by turn three I was back.
»
How do you know the race is over?
« We don't watch the lap count all the time, but we see it, and even more so when we're not in a group. We then have time to see how many rounds are left. Sometimes when you're fighting you don't see the checkered flag, but normally you do. In our case, we knew it was the last lap and it was a very big surprise (to see Aleix Espargaró greeting the crowd one lap too early). »
Álex Rins is furious with the stewards and race direction, and does not understand why Takaaki Nakagami was not sanctioned. He requests the replacement of the commissioners whom he considers incompetent. What do you think ?
« We spoke about it to the safety commission. For Mugello, Rins asked us for our opinion on the accident they had together, because he crashed at Mugello after contact with Nakagami. They wanted to have our opinion on what had happened, and we almost all agreed that in this case Nakagami had not made the slightest mistake at Mugello, and we tended to agree with the stewards who didn't penalize him, although we also agreed that sometimes Nakagami is quite aggressive when overtaking. But until now he had not made a huge mistake, whereas today he has completely lost all the credibility that we had given him in the Security Commission. It's too bad for him because now I think... I don't know what they're going to say, but he hit Rins first. So yes, he lost all his credit and it's a shame for him. »
Do you know why your hard rear tire didn't give you an advantage?
« I don't know why the hard rear tire didn't provide the advantage I could have hoped for, so we will look with the team, just like how the tire wear was during the race compared to Jorge. This will be a perfect comparison because we were generally together during the race. So I can't say why and that's why I'm frustrated that I didn't get that advantage because I was counting on it a lot. »
Regarding what happened at the first corner, it was considered a racing incident. What do you think ?
« Really, a racing incident, that's not the right term, because the way he came in under braking, he missed the braking point and came in too fast. It's a shame they won't do anything about him in the next race, but even worse, I think he's lost all credit from the other drivers. We were kind to him because we agreed that there wasn't really anything against him at Mugello, he missed out. But it's not normal that they don't say anything here.
»
Have you ever made a mistake like Aleix did today?
« No, and I hope that never happens! There have already been stories like that, the first one I remember was with Julián Simón in 2009 in 125. But no, we shouldn't, and we shouldn't think about that. »
When you were following Aleix, did you not experience any problems with increased pressure and temperature in your front tire?
« I never got close enough to really have this problem with the front tire, because I was losing too much on acceleration and the tire didn't have time to heat up. But we have to be careful in this kind of race, and that's why I think that when Aleix and Jorge Martín were able to overtake, they did it immediately. »
Result of the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit:
Credit ranking: MotoGP.com
