We had to wait until the very last moments of the first day of testing MotoGP in Qatar so that Johann zarco reassures French enthusiasts.
17th at the end of the three days in Malaysia with a delay of 1,260s conceded to Francis Bagnaia, the new representative of the LCR team indeed completed his first day on the Losail circuit in the same tone, navigating between 17th and 20th place on the handlebars of his factory Honda RC213V throughout the session. Enough to start worrying the fans of the French rider riveted to the live timing broadcast by the official MotoGP.com website, although they are accustomed to the way of working of a number 5 who is quite accustomed to it.
It was in fact only in the last quarter of an hour, in its 13th run, that the Honda, magnified by its Castrol livery, took a leap forward, entering the top 10 after having improved its time in all four sectors to obtain a unique time of 1'52.632, almost two seconds faster than his previous laps.
The verdict seemed clear, a new tire had just been fitted with the new aerodynamics brought to Qatar by the LCR team, to crown a day of work spent on worn tires.
Johann zarco confirms: “As the main work on Monday was to sort out the aerodynamic versions that we will then have to homologate for the start of the season, we only worked with two worn medium rear tires, which will also be the racing tires. Of course, it's difficult when you actually want to set times, but you have to wait and be patient to get the job done. It's hard to compare everything to yourself and not know what others are doing at the same time. In any case, I did a lot of short runs to feel the differences. We try to take advantage of my experience to try a lot of things. In the end, I was happy with the time: getting into the top 10 always brings a smile to the whole team and it's a good way to do the same performance the next day. On Tuesday we will do longer stints to best prepare ourselves for the race weekend. We will see what conditions we find on Tuesday. »
Another reason for satisfaction, the Frenchman's Honda is pushing hard, with a top speed of 348,3 km/h, giving him tied 3rd place in this area, behind Enea Bastianini (355,2) et Brad Binder (351,7).
Results from the first day of MotoGP testing at Losail:
Credit rankings: MotoGP.com