Johann Zarco confident with a "pretty good" bike in Jerez

Johann Zarco arrived in Jerez searching for answers. At the Spanish Grand Prix, he hoped to rediscover the form he had shown in the United States, where he experienced a breakthrough on his Honda. The start of the weekend seemed promising, with the Cannes native finishing in the top five in both practice sessions, before dropping down the order at the end of each session.

During practice, which qualified the top 10 directly to Q2, car number 5 had high hopes of finishing near the front. This was not to be, as he finished with the 12th fastest time, less than half a tenth of a second from 10th place.

"It's clear, it pisses me off," he confided to the media, including AUTO, after the day.hebdo. I thought I was going to be able to qualify, I put on my last tire, and I dropped from 3rd to 10th. I messed up my last lap and that was it, finished. But then, being in the top five between this morning and this afternoon, being at the front all the time, it means my breakthrough was real.

He pursues : “I had better control of the bike, and it’s immediately better. With the soft tires, in time attack mode, I feel there’s a limit, so we’ll see how we can improve. I think we can improve. The fact that we were good with the medium rear tire is already a good thing.”

A Honda that's 90% usable

Luca Marini, HRC rider in MotoGPHe explains Honda's performance deficit in qualifying laps quite simply. According to him, the RC213v is an easy bike to handle, and it's very easy to understand its specific characteristics to extract 90% of its potential. However, when it's necessary to exploit 100% of the machine's capabilities, as is the case at the end of a session when all the other manufacturers' riders are improving, the bike becomes unstable.

Johann Zarco shares this analysis, recalling Joan Mir's qualifying session in the United States to illustrate the Italian's point: “It’s true that even in Austin, Joan Mir had a great qualifying session, he was the first to set a great time, but then he was completely crushed by the others. I don’t understand why, but I think there’s something to be gained. The bike is pretty good.”

He will try to take another step forward in his understanding of the Honda this Saturday in Jerez. After testing, Zarco pointed to the RC213v's turning as the Japanese manufacturer's biggest weakness on the Andalusian circuit.

Interview by Luca Bartolomeo, in Jerez.

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