“There is frankly not much missing”, for a first success in MotoGP, assures the French Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), who won his third podium in a row at the German Grand Prix on Sunday – and his fourth ever. the season.
You hang on the Sachsenring a new third place in GP, you are not far from this first victory in premier class. What is the next step ?
“The goal is to progress so that you can win like Jorge (Martin, his GP-winning teammate) did. He’s really been in his driving style since the start of the year, he’s managed to put everything together. Me, I find this style, my natural pays more and more. I still have to adapt to some things but frankly there’s not much missing – we’re talking in tenths or hundredths. You have to confirm the good speeds, the starts, the fights… lots of small points of progress, it’s important – tiring but important (…). To play in front and aim for victories, you must first be able to play for the podium. There, it is cool to have repeated it.
What physical condition are you in, did you still have some reserve on arrival?
“No, the Sachsenring circuit is exhausting for the left side (the circuit is one of the rare tracks to turn counterclockwise, editor’s note) (…) but compared to the year last (he had finished second, editor’s note), where halfway through the race I was in the hard, it was the case but in the last five laps, there was therefore a huge evolution. This confidence and this feeling that I have on the bike, the more it will come and the more my body will relax. Relaxing saves so much energy (…). But I’m glad it’s over. I even almost made a mistake in the first corner of the last lap because when I braked, I saw them fighting in the distance (Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia, editor’s note) (…) then I saw a sort of of movement (…), I wondered what was going on, I looked up and poum I lost the front of the bike. It scared me but fortunately the reflexes are good (he swerved before returning to the track, editor’s note).
On Friday, you ended the day with a totally destroyed bike after your collision with Marc Marquez and on Saturday, you crashed during qualifying. The weekend started rather badly. How do you analyze this rise?
“Massimo (Branchini, his chief mechanic) told me be happy after the sprint (where he finished fourth on Saturday, editor’s note) because since the start of the weekend, we have only been repairing the bike, we have could not work to make adjustments. We couldn’t look for these little details enough because of the falls. We have been repairing the bike since Friday since we first had a chassis and an engine cut out, then on Saturday I fell alone in qualifying. The bike is again HS. So finishing not far from the podium for the sprint and on the podium on Sunday, in these conditions, there is reason to be satisfied.
