After two consecutive rounds without scoring points, Johann Zarco returned to the points in the MotoGP French Grand Prix. To do so, he finished the main race in Le Mans in 12th position, even being the best Honda rider.
The Frenchman from LCR Honda mentioned that, despite not having the performance he expected, he gladly accepts the four points earned: ‘When you get four points, you take it as positive, the first target is to finish the race and get these points, to use the opportunity that riders may crash or get technical problems. I expected to be a few tenths better than on Saturday, so being easier to ride in 1m32s low and maybe 1m31s high, but I couldn’t do it in the race. It seems it has been harder than on Saturday’.
Zarco talked about the approach the team has at the moment, which remains tough: ‘It’s difficult, because we really try to work as we play like we have to fight for the podium or the victory, to enjoy doing precise things and feeling we improve some tenths. Because we know we are not competitive yet, so we accept it and we try to keep working like if we could fight for the podium, to keep these feelings’.
The rider also said: ‘This race has been long for me. [Joan] Mir did a good job, because he’s quite good everytime in the long race and seems to hold his pace very well – this pace that I wanted in the 1m32s low. But he had the crash’.