Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco leaves Malaysia in positive spirits, after a strong final day of running at the Sepang International Circuit saw him dip under the 2m00s mark on the time sheets.
The double Moto2 world champion, like fellow intermediate class rivals Alex Rins, Sam Lowes and Tech 3 team-mate Jonas Folger, makes his MotoGP debut this season. As such, this opening test of the year was all about getting comfortable on the bike.
The French rider enjoyed a productive and competitive three days of running, focussing primarily on long run pace. He completed 162 laps of the circuit during the test, improving his laptime by significant margins from day to day.
Wednesday’s session saw Zarco manage 45 laps, a handful less than on the other two days as fatigue set in. Nonetheless, he managed to successfully complete close to a race distance. Not wanting to risk anything, he waited till the end of the day’s running before bolting on fresh rubber and going for a time attack.
Having set himself the target of a sub-2m00s lap, Zarco achieved this and convincingly so, improving on his Tuesday best by over half a second to complete the top 10 and finish the day only four tenths away from session leader Maverick Vinales.
“We closed the test in a positive way and I am happy about what we managed to accomplish in Malaysia, even if it was necessary to rest my body a bit today because of the energy that I had spent in the past two days,” explained the Frenchman.
“In the morning we just tried to ride some good times in the low temperature and then afterwards, the plan was to run a series of constant laps in a race simulation, but even if I didn’t fully achieve this, I came close. During that time, I relaxed more on the bike but then I waited until the afternoon because of the tyre limit and I didn’t want to push too much on the used rubber and risk anything.
“When we put the last new tyre in at almost the end of the day, I was able to get under the two-minute lap mark which I am happy about because it was a target for me. We can see that many riders did this also but I am one of them so I am certainly pleased and now I am eager to see what we can do at Phillip Island.”
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