{"id":288852,"date":"2025-11-16T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288852\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T19:22:08","slug":"johann-zarco-sorry-for-pecco-i-thought-quartararo-had-a-technical-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288852\/","title":{"rendered":"Johann Zarco: \u201cSorry for Pecco, I thought Quartararo had a technical problem&#8230;\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Johann Zarco has explained the circumstances behind his opening lap clash with Francesco Bagnaia, which sent the factory Ducati star out of the Valencia MotoGP season finale.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/911998\/fabio-quartararo\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fabio Quartararo<\/a>, starting from sixth, struggled with a clutch issue off the line, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1086803\/1\/fabio-quartararo-explains-valencia-motogp-completely-forget\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">then was unable to disengage his front holeshot device<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bagnaia, who had made a storming start from 14th on the grid, was already ahead of the Yamaha rider when Zarco &#8211; believing Quartararo might have a permanent issue &#8211; dived inside his compatriot on entry to Turn 4.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/lcr-honda\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LCR Honda <\/a>rider made the pass but, in his haste, couldn\u2019t make the corner. After dodging Brad Binder, Zarco hit the side of Bagnaia\u2019s factory Ducati.<\/p>\n<p>Bagnaia crashed in the gravel, ending his season, while Zarco was given a long lap penalty.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuper sorry for Pecco,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889489\/johann-zarco\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zarco<\/a> said on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw Quartararo struggling with the fork [holeshot] lock and because he could not unlock on the first corner and second corner, I thought that he has a [permanent] technical problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the target was to overtake Fabio as quickly as possible, to avoid losing time behind him, because if he keeps the fork locked for the whole lap, then I will lose time, and it&#8217;s not easy to overtake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen on this changing direction under braking, I decided to overtake him, but in the moment I made the move, it was so hard to slow down the bike and avoid Brad Binder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause if I tried to go into Turn 4, I would have hit Brad Binder. So I avoided Brad, but the way I had to avoid him, I went wide and I crossed the line of Pecco.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hit was kind of strong. I&#8217;m sorry he could not race today, and I was expecting to get a penalty &#8211; even if the first idea was to avoid Brad, but for sure I made another rider crash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zarco dropped to 21st after the incident and penalty, but recovered to twelfth place, passing HRC\u2019s Joan Mir on the final lap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the long lap, I was kind of last, and I just took it easy, tried to be constant, but without burning the tyre,\u201d Zarco said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost time behind Rins, because I had good pace, but staying close to another rider to overtake him is a weak point for me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in the last five laps, I was getting better than the others with used tyres, and I was happy to catch Mir. I knew with his style that he was asking a lot to the rear tyre, so I could adjust and get the 12th position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3000_gng_1285563_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Zarco passes Mir, 2025 Valencia MotoGP\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Zarco passes Mir, 2025 Valencia MotoGP<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;Congrats to Marini&#8221; &#8211; Honda moves from D to C concessions<\/p>\n<p>Five places ahead was Mir\u2019s team-mate Luca Marini, who gave Honda the seventh-place finish needed to move up a concessions class from D to C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday the target was to be in the top 10, and I said that if we can catch the 7th position, it would be very good, because this was the target of Honda to get the 9 points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s good that at least one of the Honda riders did it, and very congrats to Marini, because starting from 13th &#8211; yesterday he did an amazing start, and today he did an amazing start again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo he did well, and he caught these points for Honda, which is good.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy to finish the season seeing the chequered flag, happy to finish the season without any injuries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Tuesday, we will test with the new bike, and try many things, but to develop what I want on the bike, this will be in Malaysia [next February].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope I will find the solution with my team, because the bike is getting more and more competitive, and if I can extract the good things of my riding style, then we will have the chance to get [more] podiums next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Le Mans winner Zarco finished the season as Honda\u2019s top rider, by six points over Marini, for twelfth in the world championship.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johann Zarco has explained the circumstances behind his opening lap clash with Francesco Bagnaia, which sent the factory&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,7607,15612,15613,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-288852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-francesco-bagnaia","11":"tag-johann-zarco","12":"tag-lcr-honda","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motosport","16":"tag-motosports","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}