Johann Zarco did not have an easy Saturday in Motegi. Far from being able to fight for points during the sprint, the Frenchman first lost time by following Joan Mir off the track, when the latter fell. Shortly after, he was involved in an incident with his LCR teammate Takaaki Nakagami, whom Zarco knocked to the ground while trying to overtake him. Very quickly, the race commissioners gave him a long lap.
“After the error [avec Mir]I tried to come back as quickly as possible but it was not possible to overtake when braking, because I couldn’t slow down the bike well.”Zarco explained on Canal+. “I have good corner speed and on this lap Taka went a little wide. I tried to overtake him because that was the only place I could do it.”
“I was expecting him to be able to see me a little earlier and lift the bike up but we had contact and I didn’t want him to fall. He’s a teammate so it’s not cool but It was the place where I could go inside and I did the maneuver.”
VIDEO – The summary of the Japanese GP sprint race
Subsequently, Zarco was questioned about his sanction by journalists, and in particular about his long-lapse: “I accept the penalty because according to the rules, it’s quite normal. We had contact, he fell, so I took the long lap.”
Nakagami, for his part, mentioned a maneuver “risky” which he did not appreciate, while specifying that Zarco had come to apologize to him in the LCR garage. “I am disappointed with the way I finished the sprint, in the gravel”declared the Japanese. “I’m also disappointed with my teammate, obviously. It wasn’t a necessary maneuver. We weren’t fighting for points, and it was the start of the race. And it’s not recommended to overtake in this corner , between 1 and 2. But apart from the race, fortunately I’m fine.”
Zarco acknowledged that the incident “a little bit” cooled the atmosphere at LCR. “We’re going to the separate fan zone now!” he quipped, specifying that causing the fall of Nakagami was not “not [son] but” but he had to attack to try to gain places: “Already, the mistake of the first lap, you try to recover… At one point, you have to double.”
Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
If Zarco is so aggressive on his Honda, it is partly because the latter is particularly behind this weekend. “We’re not feeling good on the bike: too much loss in acceleration, I can’t get where I want when entering corners, so I’m struggling a bit“, he admitted, which caused some annoyance: “Not being able to steer the bike the way I would like, and not being able to find the settings more quickly, makes me show my fangs.”
You should not try to aim too high, you should aim for medium.
Zarco and LCR have already “well done” possible changes to their bike and progress has been made, but he knows it will be difficult to continue making them: “We passed a good milestone between yesterday and today, because yesterday we had a lot of vibrations. It has already been good for the driving.”
“I found it interesting that we were still able to play with motorcycle settings”he added. “It’s rare that it works so much, so that’s already a good thing. We’re going to stick with what we have, because we shouldn’t try to aim too high, we have to aim for average. It’s too bad but there are definitely possible points.”
“Surprisingly, there was the group in front who struggled a bit with this soft tire, they lost a lot of rhythm. Will they be in difficulty with the medium tire tomorrow? And who knows, maybe be, who will try a soft tire tomorrow on the long race So, this group where there was Fabio? [Quartararo]it could be a group to have over the duration of the race.”
A lively day
The incident with Nakagami was not the only notable moment of Zarco’s day, who himself had suffered a fairly heavy crash in FP2 in the morning: “This turn 6… The conditions were perhaps not the best and I tried to pass a little faster, with a little more gas. The bike stalled at the front.”
Zarco could not do better than the 16th time in qualifying. During the sprint he lost places on the first lap, even before the incident with Mir: “We made progress at the start, we changed something on the clutch again, which allows us to make more consistent, better starts, but on the second part, from 100 to 200, I only pitch up and I lose too much time.”
Zarco judged “Shame” that his race was marked by several errors: “Especially the first, on the first lap, with Mir who went straight. I was a little caught up in this aspiration to brake from the [virage] 11, that made me lose a lot of places. So, that didn’t allow me to fight at the end with this group which was around tenth place, because we were struggling a bit with the tire which lost performance.”
“Me, at the end of the race, I was rather good compared to them. This deficit in acceleration and at the end of corner entries, which does not allow me to steer the bike as I would like, limits too much for overtaking, that’s why it was difficult.”
Between the falls in front of him and several overtakes, Zarco was nevertheless able to grab 14th place: “It’s not bad. I fought to say, ‘Come on, I’m trying to catch up with Marini’ but with tenths, it wasn’t enough and I finished just behind him. It gives me a bit of dreams for tomorrow, on the long race I don’t know who will use medium, who will use soft. I don’t know what we will do either, if there is a majority of soft. even have an advantage. If it’s medium, I don’t know yet.”
Avec Luca Bartolomeo
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