Zarco had "a little smile" when he saw Quartararo running out of petrol at the finish

One man's misfortune is another man's gain, the adage could not be truer concerning fabio quartararo and Johann Zarco at the finish of the Japanese Grand Prix this Sunday. The two Frenchmen followed each other for a long time at the gates of the Top 10, with the Yamaha rider ahead of the LCR Honda rider. If the Cannes rider was unable to take the lead over the Nice rider for about twenty laps, Johann Zarco had to wait until the last corner of the last lap to steal 11th place from his compatriot… with a little help!

Indeed, as in Misano two weeks ago, Fabio Quartararo ran out of fuel in the final metres of the race. That was all it took for the number 5 to take advantage and overtake him on the finish line! The LCR Honda rider therefore finished 11th, a mixed result despite everything: the Frenchman, who had chosen the medium tyre on the rear, hoped to finish this Japanese Grand Prix stronger and move up the hierarchy. However, he can be satisfied with once again being the best Honda rider at the finish for the Japanese manufacturer's home race... before returning to Australia in two weeks, a year after his first victory in MotoGP.

Johann Zarco (LCR Honda), 11th in the Japanese Grand Prix on the microphone of Canal+ : “We followed each other [with Fabio Quartararo], he kept his pace well. We saw that we could catch up with Aleix [Espargaro] and [Jack] Miller, and I think he knew that Miller was going to have a hard time at the end of the race because he usually wears out the rear tyre quite a bit. But I wasn’t able to be any closer to Fabio to try to overtake him and then attack the others. That’s hard because you find yourself a bit blocked because the front tyre builds up pressure and that affects braking a lot, you can’t brake late and as soon as you try, you feel the bike pushing you and you can miss the corner, and therefore lose time. I tried to control it, but I expected a bit with the medium tyre on the rear. In the end, I didn’t have an advantage at halfway through the race and I still struggled a bit at the end.”

“Fabio had a fuel problem coming out of the last corner… unbelievable. I tried to come out of the corner well to get more traction and then his bike almost stopped. I had a little smile anyway because 11th is always better than 12th, and that’s cool. We got closer, we raced with the Yamaha, we finished with Miller’s KTM, Aleix wasn’t far behind either. We had pretty much the same problems as them in terms of tire wear. It was a bit tough because I was hoping for a second wind in the race that I couldn’t get.”

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