17th during Practice for the British Grand Prix MotoGP at Silverstone, Johann zarco attacked his Saturday with ardor and qualified in 16th position on the grid, once again proving to be the fastest Honda.
The Frenchman then completed a beautiful 10-lap Sprint, which saw him cross the finish line in 14th position, 18 seconds behind the winner, again the best Honda driver.
A satisfaction that number 5 does not disdain and which he attributes to his incessant desire to improve his riding while waiting for a more efficient bike.
He details his day like this...
The qualifications…
“The 2 runs were not bad. But there you go, good progress on the 2nd run so I was able to stick a little closer to Morbidelli. I wanted to follow Morbidelli because in relation to his style, I knew that there was a way to be able to follow him. I saw riders that were harder to follow, but as he was riding, I knew it was doable, and indeed he did 58.5, I did 58.7 It helps a lot, so glad this strategy was able to work, but there you go , finally a great time, and in fact it's 16th, it's better than 19th anyway.
I went to greet Massimo and Gino before the race and say “thank you”. These are really people that I really like, and there I was, I went to greet them, and one of the mechanics said “please don't brake later than Franco” (laughs). »
The Sprint…
“A decent time which is a pleasure. I hung on to Morbidelli well, I was able to follow him, it felt good to have the right attack and to put in a decent performance. But that always puts us far away and that's what upsets us. Afterwards, I was really focused for the race and it was cool to have a little more speed than the other Hondas. As I say, on a big circuit, in general we lose more time, and frankly there was a way to hang on. Even at one point, I saw Fabio not so far away. We say to ourselves “I can still progress this adaptation of riding on this bike, to use it in a different way to save time in each corner”. I'm happy, in terms of feeling and confidence it was pretty good. Afterwards, it’s just difficult to do better.”
The state of mind at the start when we know that we don't have the weapons to fight against all the other bikes in the field...
“I'm focused on telling myself 'try to gain places in the first corners' because if you commit hard, there is a way to gain a few places. Me, the last 2 races, I lost places. There was a slightly hotter event, but I'm not going to be defeatist here: it's “trying to gain places, almost to crowd out the others a little. It will save you time later in the race.” Because the same, a gap at the end of a race, if over the first 2 laps you can avoid losing these 4 seconds, you are no longer in the same group afterwards, and that allows you to play things a little better . »
Stay combative and approach races without taking into account the level of the bike…
“Yeah, I'm trying, accepting more things, but I was good this weekend. So, I feel like I put in even better energy, and I see that sometimes when you hope too much, you end up even more disappointed. So, I just have to pay attention to this cursor because I think I really attacked in a way to play for the podium, and you don't even exist! So you have to manage that.”
Fabio Quartararo who stops trying new things and takes an old base…
“All we did, looking too hard, was to get lost again and make the pilot lose confidence. I work on my confidence, I let the team work because they still tried things, with swinging arms, all that, to look for directions. I can give information, but the bike remains balanced so that I still gain confidence. We have seen in any case that it is not very small things that make this big difference, we need a kind of new project, hoping that the project goes in the right direction. »
On Sunday, the same result would earn points. Possible to do it over double the distance?
" I hope ! I hope to have a good feeling with the mid rear at the start of the race, and that it offers good behavior to the bike for the whole race, because I know that if I have good behavior from the bike, I will really manage tire wear, better than some other drivers. That can give me the chance to play for points, and therefore advance in this championship.”
MotoGP Silverstone Johann Zarco 
MotoGP Silverstone Johann Zarco 
British Grand Prix Sprint Results MotoGP 2024 at Silverstone:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
