Good result at Assen ‘will be necessary for the championship’ - Zarco

An eighth place finish at Sachsenring after starting from pole, has left Johann Zarco needing big points heading into the final MotoGP race before the summer break. 

Zarco started on pole for the first time this season in Germany, but was unable to turn it into a podium or top five, while championship leader Fabio Quartararo took third and therefore increased the gap between the pair. 

Leading into the German GP the gap was 14 points - now 22, and Zarco knows ‘it will be necessary for the championship’ to get a ‘good result’.  

Speaking ahead of the weekend, Zarco said: "I hope because it will be necessary for the championship and before the summer break it would be good to catch a great visit here. 

"As I'm always saying, the Ducati has a huge potential and I think the bike has the potential to be on the podium everywhere now this season. 

"Clearly I missed something in the Sachsenring but the weekend was quite interesting and also in the race the first half, I was pretty happy to see many things. 

"I hope these things will be useful for this weekend and will make me strong to fight with Fabio, who I think will be one of the best and if I can be fast enough I think I will enjoy."

While Ducati have made significant strides forward with this year’s package; especially at race tracks not considered favourable, the Italian manufacturer only has one win around Assen which came in 2008 thanks to Casey Stoner - whereas Yamaha have been the team to beat of late in the Netherlands - four wins in the last eight Dutch TT’.