Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Johann Zarco progresses straight through to the second part of qualifying in Qatar, after he set the fourth quickest time of the weekend in FP3.
The French rider has been impressive all winter on his 2016-spec YZR-M1, and was quick from the off in Thursday’s opening free practice session.
Zarco was eighth fastest in FP1, finishing the evening ahead of factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi and just two tenths away from Tech 3 team-mate Jonas Folger. However, despite what his strong form suggested, the Frenchman wasn’t all that comfortable on the bike.
“In all honesty, I was not completely confident on the first day due to the track conditions, even though my position was positive,” he admitted.
Track conditions were still far from ideal on Friday, but Zarco had regained much of his lost confidence and managed to improve on his Thursday time across both of this evening’s sessions.
The Tech 3 rider lowered his Friday benchmark to a 1m55.3s in FP2, and knocked a further three tenths off of that in third practice to a 1m55.003s to go third in the session and fourth on the combined timesheets.
Whilst on his soft tyre run, Zarco hooked onto the back of Maverick Vinales and studied the Spaniard’s lines. This allowed him to put in a string of low 1m55s laps, leaving him extremely happy with his day’s work.
“I am very happy with our performance today,” he added.
“The work the team and I did was really good, and going straight through to QP2 and being ready for it is important for many reasons, but also because we can save some tyres
“Today my confidence increased and I was a bit lucky because in the final session, whilst I was using the soft tyres, I followed Maverick and I learnt a lot from him, plus I improved my lap time.
“I will keep focused for the qualifying. Additionally, I will prepare for the race as much as possible because I think that I am strong for 22 laps, then I can finish with a big smile on my face on Sunday.”
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