Johann Zarco shines in Jerez: "You need an epic race to finish seventh"

Johann Zarco leaves Andalusia with a smile. In Jerez, the Frenchman achieved a remarkable feat by keeping his Honda in the direct wake of the race leader for more than twenty laps.

Seeing an LCR Honda starting from second position on the grid was already almost a mirage. Zarco owes this result to his exceptional talent in wet conditions; he nearly snatched pole position from Marc Márquez before a small mistake in the final corner forced him to settle for second place.

He ultimately finished the race seventh, earning nine valuable championship points. I was doing what I wanted to do, assures the media present on site, including AUTO, that number 5 is confirmed.Weekly. I had announced before the race that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace for the podium. Instead of playing games where I let myself be overtaken, passing the faster drivers, I did everything I could to stick with them, and that's what created a gap with those behind. And it worked exactly like that. »

While holding a solid fifth place, Zarco suffered a sudden degradation of his rear tire, making his bike unstable and difficult to ride. It was at this moment that the Trackhouse Racing duo made their move. Raúl Fernández, then Ai Ogura, took advantage of this loss of grip to overtake the Frenchman.

« With five laps to go, my rear tire degraded too much, and the bike started to wobble a lot. Losing four-tenths of a second per lap, it was impossible to stay with... Martín. I really thought for a moment that I might be able to catch him with my slightly different lines, but then the tire gave out. Then Raúl came back, and I felt I wasn't going to be able to hold him, keep him behind. He passed me, and I thought, I'll keep my line very clean to try and stay with him. Not possible either. Then Ogura overtook me again.. ".

Despite impeccable lines in an attempt to resist, Johann Zarco had to concede ground, but managed to salvage valuable points for seventh place thanks to the lead he built up early in the race over the rest of the field. This strategy of saying 'I'm maintaining the best pace thanks to the first rider', or at least thanks to the fourth rider, thanks to Martín, who was also being pulled along by Fabio Di Giannantonio, workedhe rejoicesI maintained that pace to create a gap with the rider behind me. That created a gap with eighth place, because in the last two laps, Bastianini was gaining almost two seconds on me, but with my three and a half second lead, it was enough."

Honda's Achilles' heel

But to reach the podium, it's still missing a handful of tenths of a second that the RC213V isn't yet able to deliver over the course of a Grand Prix. These few tenths of a second difference per lap reflect a bike that still demands too much from its rider in critical phases, particularly in fast corners, where other machines can take them without braking, without throttle, without putting any effort on the front or rear.

« [What I miss are] those fast corners, actually, the meters you lose there. I saw that I immediately started sliding a lot. Turn 11 was tricky too, where you know you have to go in, you know you have to accelerate again, but you lose the front because there was a lot of wind. The ten or so meters you lose in a fast corner are hard to make up in a slow one. Jerez is a small circuit, but it has four very fast corners.

He adds : "You need an exceptional race to finish seventh. But yes, that was certainly the level here in Jerez, but we would never have achieved second place in regular conditions. I think we should have been doing a 35.6, we were stuck at 2:36.3""

While Jerez ultimately punished the Honda towards the end of the race, the Le Mans circuit could offer a much more favorable scenario. It's generally a good grip track with little wear. " says Johann Zarco. The French round therefore represents an ideal opportunity to validate the progress seen.

For the local hero, winner on home soil in the 2025 edition, the objective will then be to find that relaxation discovered in Austin in order to reduce that gap by a few tenths and to shine again in front of his public, from May 8 to 10.

Interview by Luca Bartolomeo.

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