Johann Zarco says he is choosing to “see the glass half full” after a challenging Thai MotoGP season opener.
The LCR rider struggled for early pace during the Buriram race relative to the factory Honda duo of Luca Marini and Joan Mir.
However, their pace merged in the middle stages, before all the RCV riders battled a significant tyre drop.
Mir’s tyre degradation proved the most severe, forcing the Spaniard to retire from fifth place in the closing stages.
With hindsight, Zarco believes his slower early laps may have helped him reach the finish.
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2026 Thai MotoGP: Hondas
© Peter McLaren
“I’m happy to finish the race and get some points to start the championship,” Zarco said.
“If you don’t finish and have zero points, then the next three weeks are tough, and you get even more pressure for the next GP.”
Zarco crossed the finish line in eleventh, just behind Marini, with the Ducatis of Franco Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia slightly further ahead.
“I could not stay close to the others, like Marini, at the beginning,” he explained. “Then my pace remained the same, and I was trying to save the tyre as much as possible.
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“Even like this, I got a huge drop and could not attack at the end.
“But maybe the fact that I was a bit slower [at the start] helped me to finish the race, if I take Joan Mir’s case. So it’s a way to see the glass half full.”
Zarco admitted he is still trying to unlock the potential of Honda’s latest package.
“I need to find small things to ride the bike better,” he said.
“During the race, I felt there is still a DNA of Honda that, if you can play with the lean and the turning, you can be much faster.
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“The bike is quite safe and has a good front. That’s the positive thing.”
However, Zarco achieved a better race result (seventh vs eleventh) and was closer to the winner (15.2s vs 19.9s) in last season’s Buriram event.
“Last year, with a bike that was not as good as now on braking and acceleration, I had better control and a better race,” he said.
“This year, I was struggling more with my feelings. Even if we see that the bike performs better, we ended up with a worse result than last year.”
Zarco remains confident he can match Mir’s pace once he fully adapts to the new bike.
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“The target is to go up,” he said.
“And I really believe that once we unlock the things I need, then we will be in a great place.
“You can see Joan Mir can be in the top six, so I guess I will be there also.”
Rookie team-mate Diogo Moreira finished 13th on his MotoGP debut.
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