Johann Zarco’s US MotoGP hopes ended in an early tangle with Enea Bastianini, before producing one of the standout lap times of the race.
The LCR Honda rider crashed on lap two after contact with Bastianini but remounted at the back of the field in case of a red flag, as occurred in the Moto2 Grand Prix.
“We got through the first lap and were still together in the group. I had already overtaken Moreira and I was able to pass Marini; things were going pretty well.” Zarco told Canal+.
“Bastianini seemed to be struggling a bit with the fuel tank. Fernandez passed him into Turn 8. Bastianini moved aside and I tried to follow, thinking we’d change direction parallel to each other.
“I wasn’t trying to overtake at that point, [but] I had to go in knowing we needed to change direction.
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“He tried to come back, we made contact and I fell in Turn 9. It was a racing incident, I don’t complain, these things happen.
“The race was lost, but I tried to restart the bike because I thought, like in Moto2, there might be a red flag.”
That never came, but with the pressure off, Zarco ‘played around’ with traction and power – and set the second fastest lap time of the grand prix.
“I tried to get a feel for a track I struggle with. I told myself, ‘enjoy yourself, it’s a great track, you’re on a great bike.
“There were some interesting things because it’s still a job for the engineers to try and find traction and power, and I played around with that a bit.”
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US MotoGP Lap Times: Hondas plus Marco Bezzecchi.
© Peter McLaren
“A sign that it can be done”
On lap 10, Zarco set his scorching best lap time of 2m2.073s.
That was faster than any lap by race winner Marco Bezzecchi and second only to the 2m2.037s new lap record by another Aprilia rider, Ai Ogura. The fastest lap by any other Honda rider was almost 0.4s slower.
Zarco’s time is given as ‘valid’ in the official results, meaning no cancellation due to track limits.
The Frenchman was over a minute and a half behind the next closest rider, and had not been lapped at that stage, ruling out a fortuitous slipstream.
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Zarco matched his best top speed of the race when setting the lap time, but was still the slowest of any Honda rider at 338.0km/h.
The Frenchman said the head-turning lap served as “a sign”, even if he couldn’t come close to repeating it, with a next best over half a second slower.
“I did a 2m2.00s at a point in the race where you think the others weren’t going any faster, and I haven’t been able to repeat it,” he confirmed.
“In any case, it’s a sign that it can be done. Then you have to understand how to do it and do it again.”
Once beyond the two-thirds restart distance, and with points still well out of reach, the Frenchman retired from last place with two laps to go.
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Luca Marini finished as the top Honda rider, in ninth.
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