This Sunday, September 25, 2022, Johann zarco answered questions from journalists from the Motegi circuit at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Starting from 2nd position on the starting grid, the French driver had a difficult race which led him to cross the finish line in 11th place.
As usual, we report here the words of Johann zarco without the slightest formatting, even if it is partially translated (vouvoiement for English, tutoiement for French).
Johann zarco : " Damage ! Damage. I felt pretty good before the race and the start was interesting. Oliveira got in well on the inside of the first corner and coming out a little wide I had to cut the gas, otherwise we would both go into the grass. So, that put me in seventh place. There, behind Viñales, I felt that I had the speed to be in front, but I always lose in small important places and that makes me force more to be able to stay in contact and then overtake. And trying to be within the millimeter to be able to overtake, I made a few mistakes at one point: turn 1, turn 5 and then turn 10. And there I lost from 7th place to 13th place. A little complicated. Yet another mistake, where it's Alex Márquez who passes me. Afterwards, everyone was riding a small 48 and it wasn't easy to repeat. So, I had to hold on and hope to have speed at the end of the race, but I paid too dearly for the mistakes. »
There were still positive things during this weekend: Do you have good hopes for the race in Thailand?
« The speed is still there. Afterwards, we get stuck on something on the bike. Me, I'm not comfortable on it, so in delicate conditions I can always get by, even in tests, but as long as we can't make me comfortable and I can be more comfortable in contact with others, the races will be difficult. There's too much of a blockage, and not just on my side. So I hope everything goes well in Thailand. »
You had a difficult race with a lot of corners where you widened…
« While trying to overtake Viñales during the first five laps, I made these mistakes, and I lost too many positions because of these three consecutive mistakes, from seventh to 13th place. Then it was quite difficult because of the others because the top 10 had a good pace and I couldn't go any faster to make up for my mistakes. I did the best at the end, I tried to take 10th place from Bezzecchi but he was good at fighting at the end, and I couldn't overtake him. »
We saw Marco Bezzecchi but also Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia come up in a group during the race…
« Yes, there is a big difference between following or remaining alone. This is what sometimes makes things tricky when overtaking. When you want to overtake, you have to feel really comfortable, like Jack did today: He was fantastic! So you have to keep working to find that feeling.
»
MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix results:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
