MotoGP, Zarco: "Surprised by the result. Without a slipstream, I wouldn't have made it."

The last weekend of Honda's busy MotoGP season opened with good news: the 4th best time by Johann Zarco in pre-qualifying. The former Ducati rider was able to play it smart and secured the Q2 by surprising himself, since he hadn't gotten beyond a 15th place in the morning.

"Doing a good lap before the end of the session was good. Then, with the last tire, there was the potential of doing a few tenths better. But, because of a series of mistakes, I couldn't improve," the French rider said. "That puts us in a good position. Then, tomorrow, we'll see, because it's hard to quickly find confidence on the left side. If you try to push, you might get a surprise, and I wanted to avoid losing time. The afternoon result surprised me, so I hope to keep going like this. It looks like there might be an opportunity to get the first two rows and that's great."

Zarco definitely worried. "I have to say that, when the tire starts to wear out, the bike changes behavior. I don't know if a solution can be found for the Sprint, but I hope we can have good speed and control the bike well," he said.

Compared to the previous race at Montmelo, there's been progress. "The feedback is better or, at least, I can now take advantage of the strong points of my RC213 V. After Misano, we progressed, especially in fast corners. Now, when you follow someone, you can keep up with them but, at the beginning of the year, it was unthinkable. Today, I feared I couldn't do it because of the cool temperatures. However, with the better conditions in the afternoon, I was able to do it, and I'm happy with that. I came here without high expectations, but what I achieved is what I wanted," he reflected.

But, according to the LCR rider, it would've been impossible to replicate today's outcome without the slipstream effect. "I honestly have my doubts that, without anyone in front, I would've been able to set this time and enter the Q2. Nakagami did a 1'39"7, which is good, but I don't think I could've done better on my own. That said, I'll take whatever comes," he finally admitted.