Johann Zarco went for a top 5 finish in the sprint race after two solid overtakes on Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo.
The British GP had not started as well as Johann zarco wished it with a lack of sensations yesterday, then a fall at the end of qualifying this afternoon. The Frenchman, however, was able to build his race from his ninth place on the grid and gradually return to the front.
A little closed in at the start, he found himself tenth but managed to gain two places in the first lap. “I didn’t know where to position myself in the first corner.”, he explained to the microphone of Canal +. "I thought I'd stay on the inside of the 2nd lane and try to get to the outside of the 3rd lane. I braked hard in the 3rd lane, and Marini saw me, so he accelerated really hard and dove inside. I saw it was going to get stuck and I came out behind Rins."
Moving up to seventh and then sixth position, zarco came back in the last two laps in the wheel of Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo. Taking Marco Bezzecchi with him, he was initially surprised by the latter, who overtook him before attacking the two men to take fourth place. The number #5 imitated him, and went for a top 5 on the last lap thanks to two solid overtaking moves.
"It's a bit my style. On long corners like that at 180, I manage to turn quite short and, when the rear grip control is quite good, I know that the drivers don't expect it too much.", he explained. " They tend to come in a bit harder, move away and come back accelerating, and I go around the bush and that allows me to pass. I had Rins on the first lap like that and then I said to myself that Fabio was concentrating on Pecco, he was perhaps going to prepare an overtake and so I took the opportunity to pass there.
"I'm happy, I had the bike in hand and it was cool at the end to overtake two top riders and take fifth place. It was cool, a fight. Starting ninth is not easy here. I managed to ride my bike well, a bit forcefully so we'll see tomorrow how to control that, because at that speed I can't have more. In any case, I had this good control of the traction and that made a big difference because at the end, Pecco, and even Fabio, had a bit of trouble with traction."
If it would have been unthinkable for zarco to imagine overtaking Bagnaia last year, he notes that it is the second time this season, a sign that Honda is on the right track: "It's like in Argentina, when I said I was bothered by Pecco. We would have signed him last year. It's progressing well, so it's really cool."
Silverstone sprint race results :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
