A week after the podium of the Portuguese Grand Prix, Johann Zarco retired due to a crash at the Jerez circuit. Struggling on his Ducati throughout the weekend, the Frenchman was up to ninth and battling Marco Bezzecchi when he suddenly lost the front of his bike at the fifth corner of the Andalusian track.
Zarco lost seven points in his crash, which would have allowed him to retain fifth place in the championship . The Frenchman regrets not having been able to salvage an acceptable result in a difficult weekend: “It’s a shame because, even if there wasn’t a podium to play for, you can always play for eighth or seventh place. That’s important.”
“There was an interesting speed during the race, but I already imagined it during practice and during the warm up,” he introduced after finishing on Sunday.
“In the fight with other drivers there were too many differences and too important points where, as often, I was losing [time], so it prevented me from attacking as I wanted,” he assessed on Sunday.
“I was waiting for Marco Bezzecchi to slow down a bit, because he was starting to have a little problem with the grip, but in general, with the heat, we felt he had less grip on the Ducati.”
Before his crash, Johann Zarco had already experienced a difficult start to the race, dropping from sixth to ninth in the first few corners.
“It was hard for me to brake well and the front of the bike felt very limited. And while I was preparing [an overtaking] and trying to get as close as possible to attack at turn 6, I crashed at turn 5. The bike made me lose the control”.
“I couldn’t stay on the bike and it was better to fall, because I was already expelled,” Zarco added when meeting with the journalists. “It’s a shame, but like I said, I was missing something here. It’s positive that Pecco [Bagnaia] won. It’s going to bring good information to Ducati and it’s a good way to see that when something is missing, you can’t do everything yourself. That It was my problem in the race”, he assured.
Zarco clarifies that he “couldn’t” fight well in the race due to lack of grip and that his Ducati “couldn’t hold” that pace, which ultimately contributed to his crash:
“In the middle of the race it seems that the pace of the leaders improved a bit, or they were a bit more consistent, so the grip was better. [The lack of grip] was the combination of the heat and the racing in Moto2. But that We know, we have a little bit of experience about it. During the tests I will try to find what is missing, because it seems that we have worked well and made good progress, but not enough to win the race.”
“Jerez is a difficult circuit for me. It is positive to have the tests, because with this experience I can see that sometimes the same problem returns. I have to try to handle the bike in a different way because if I manage to have the comfort that the others do, I can normally go very fast,” he concluded.
