{"id":46658,"date":"2025-08-06T01:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46658\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T01:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:29:09","slug":"valentino-rossi-saw-black-and-white-but-johann-zarco-might-pocket-extra-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46658\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentino Rossi saw black-and-white but Johann Zarco might pocket extra money\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johann Zarco\u2019s victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours required him to master an issue which notoriously troubled Valentino Rossi.<\/p>\n

But a second win in a row at the legendary Japanese endurance event will strengthen Honda\u2019s faith in Johann Zarco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He won Suzuka as a rookie in 2024 but, at the weekend, retained it for his manufacturer who place so much emphasis on the result that they wanted their standout MotoGP rider to compete again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD CRASH MOTOGP PODCAST<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt will mean a lot, especially after doing it as a two-rider team. It\u2019s some achievement,\u201d Peter McLaren told the Crash MotoGP <\/a>podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won last year so there was more expectation this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour hours each, a MotoGP race is less than an hour, so it\u2019s four-times the race distance. It\u2019s not the intensity but there are backmarkers, riding at night with headlights, and the incredible heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically it must be so extreme to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a physical effect. It\u2019s mental – you lose focus, it\u2019s draining, you lose dexterity.<\/p>\n

\u201cValentino Rossi<\/a> said, years ago at Sepang, that he started seeing black and white towards the end of a race!<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of that, during a summer break, is a massive achievement for Zarco which will go down well with Honda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a year for him! He won his home grand prix on a Honda, and Suzuka on a Honda<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossi was also a Suzuka 8 Hours winner on a Honda and admitted his troubles with the hot conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Honda contract for Johann Zarco? \"Honda\" <\/p>\n

Honda<\/p>\n

Zarco is the oldest rider on the MotoGP grid but his stock has arguably never been higher.<\/p>\n

He is out of contract with LCR Honda this year but is expected to pen a new deal, especially after winning the French MotoGP at Le Mans this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA manufacturer like Honda will put a lot of credence into a result like this,\u201d Lewis Duncan told the podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it will change much of his destiny. If a deal hasn\u2019t already been signed, then it will be imminently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine it not being at least a two-year contract, if not two-plus-one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the job he\u2019s done at Honda. He has been the best rider for that manufacturer. Since the second half of last year, he has got their best results. He is a grand prix winner for Honda.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuzuka is the cherry on top, I don\u2019t think it will be viewed as pushing the needle in terms of his standing within Honda. There is massive respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honda, whose project is improving in no small part thanks to Zarco\u2019s development, were previously linked with signing Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta, although those rumours have petered out.<\/p>\n

But Zarco\u2019s position within the manufacturer in 2026 was never in doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point has it ever been suggested that Zarco would lose out, which says a lot about where he fits into the Honda ecosystem,\u201d Lewis Duncan continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe there will be an extra couple of Euros on his contract for the Suzuka win!<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can give kudos to Honda for putting a contract in front of him, in the first place. And fair play to him for stepping away from the best bike on the grid to the worst, and doing something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johann Zarco\u2019s victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours required him to master an issue which notoriously troubled Valentino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,914,15612,806,805,803,804,85,26300,20420],"class_list":{"0":"post-46658","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-honda","11":"tag-johann-zarco","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-suzuka-circuit","18":"tag-valentino-rossi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46658","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=46658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}