Johann Zarco “a bit angry, but it’s kind of normal” after Barcelona MotoGP speed loss

Johann Zarco advanced directly to Q2 at the Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP in Friday’s Practice session, but was disappointed when he was unable to match that speed in Q2 itself on Saturday morning.

Zarco’s 1:39.197 left him fourth at the end of Friday, but he was only 12th-fastest, on a 1:39.494 in Q2.

Zarco explained that while he was “angry” about being unable to match his lap time of Friday, it was down to the lack of margin he has with the Honda RC213V when pushing for a single lap.

“We had this limit of the bike for qualifying, that I couldn’t improve the lap time, I even did a bit worse today,” Zarco said.

“So, I was a bit angry, but it’s kind of normal: you can do very good, but still it’s on the very edge of the capacity of the bike, so sometimes it can come but it’s hard to repeat.”

Zarco’s Sprint saw him finish 11th and keep a comparable pace with the group at the back of the top-10, despite losing some time at the beginning of the race

“Then, in the race, compared to this group — they are a group of good riders with Bez [Marco Bezzecchi], [Brad] Binder, Fabio Quartararo — it seems that I can be with them, but maybe I’ve lost a little bit of time at the beginning of the race.

“They have a few tenths we are missing to stay with them. I got a good fight with Raul Fernandez, and I’ve lost time.”

Zarco added that he needs to be strategic to maximise his possibilities in Sunday’s Grand Prix, “which is great because from the beginning of the year to two-thirds through the year I could not think about the strategy in the race but now I can think about it,” he said.

“I need to maybe put my chances on the second part of the race to then be stronger than the others in this group. Like this, I can wish for a nice top-10, which is a reasonable target for the moment.”

As a result of his perspective on how he thinks he can get the most out of the race, Zarco is tending towards the hard-compound rear tyre for the Grand Prix.

“I think we will go on the hard [compound rear tyre], I think some will go on the medium [compound rear tyre], but it’s medium or hard — the soft [compound rear tyre] you cannot race,” Zarco said.

“I hope to play on the consistency of the hard [rear tyre], which doesn’t give you a super-good feeling, but from the half-race to the end you can have maybe two-tenths better than the medium. We have to play like this.

“Anyway, if I want to have a good race I need to perform a lot at the beginning of the race.”