On the fifteenth Friday, Johann Zarco "rides with great restraint to avoid crashing"

"For me, being fifteenth isn't good." Johann Zarco spoke immediately as he approached the journalists present in Valencia, including AUTOhebdo. The winner of the French Grand Prix MotoGP is once again struggling on a Honda RC213V which has shown good progress in the hands of official riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini this season, but which Johann Zarco is unable to make work as he would like.

“There were some positive things during the day, but I'm still not comfortable on the bike enough to push when needed and improve my lap times. I don't know what feedback I can give the team to help them progress. I need to be patient so I can try everything, give the team time to try everything, to understand everything. I don't feel like I'm making progress, and that's extremely disappointing. It's very close; I missed Q2 by two tenths. I think it was possible to find them, but I didn't have enough feeling to push as I should have. I'm riding very cautiously to avoid crashing.”

It's primarily during the corner entry phase that the Cannes native feels he lacks the necessary feel and confidence to properly position his machine. Consequently, his corner exits are also compromised.

"I think I'm still lacking on corner entry, the ability to position the bike correctly to exit the corner well. I also have problems exiting corners; the bike moves around a lot, but that's because I can't take the corner well enough."

Top 10 goal

Accustomed to recovering from difficult Fridays at the start of the season, Johann Zarco isn't necessarily expecting the same thing this Saturday at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia. This is due in particular to a fundamental difference: the machine he's riding. While it's now the same as the two factory Hondas, Mir and Marini have had considerably more time to get to grips with this new machine…

“I had similar setbacks at the beginning of the year, but with a different bike. A bike that wasn't as competitive as this one, but we always managed to recover. When everyone else is progressing and has found their rhythm, I notice that I'm not where I'd like to be. I've been working properly on the bike since Malaysia, so this is my third Grand Prix on it. Maybe I'm lacking feedback.”

However, there's no question of forgetting the weekend's objectives for number 5, which could allow him to finish the year in the top 10 of the world championship: "I'll do my best. If I can achieve my goals, which are a top 10 finish in the race and a top 10 in the championship, I'll be super happy. I'm not giving up hope; I tell myself that I'll figure out how to improve at some point. But right now, being fifteenth is rubbish."

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