Johann Zarco top Honda in Qatar, “difficult to do much more”

Johann Zarco took top Honda honours with twelfth place on his 2024 LCR debut in the Qatar MotoGP season opener.

The Frenchman also comfortably beat his Pramac Ducati pace from last November’s Lusail event, being 5s faster in the Sprint and around 11s quicker over the full Grand Prix distance.

But the relentless rate of MotoGP development meant that the time gap to the top remains substantial, with Zarco +14s in the Sprint and +18s in the Grand Prix.

Nevertheless, Zarco was able to turn the tables on Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir to finish as the top RCV rider with a last lap pass in the grand prix. He also finished in the wheeltracks of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, winner of the ‘Japanese Cup’.

“A good satisfaction, at least to start the championship with few points,” Zarco told TNT Sports. “It was a different type of race than the Sprint because I had a little bit less speed, I could not fight with the others like I wanted at the beginning of the race, but at least I didn't get the big vibration that was a huge problem yesterday.

“So without any vibration, we could keep very constant, control the tyre and the fuel and then at the end try to play for the best position [we could]. On the last two laps Fabio pushed a lot, he had saved a bit also of energy. I tried to follow him to overtake, but I could not.

“But at least we got good information. I think it was difficult to do much more during this weekend and let's see in Portugal, a different layout, what will be the behaviour of the bike and from this we will keep learning. Because we have good things, then we have also big things that we are losing, so we need to wait to get the improvements.”

Last year’s Phillip Island winner described the Honda as a friendly bike to ride but admits the lap time is not good enough.

“I would say in feeling, it’s been a better transition [to Honda] than I could expect because there is a way to ride the Honda that's almost easier than the Ducati,” he said. “The only thing is you go slower!

“So just for this, I would say it's a pleasure to go on the bike, but as long as I'm racing, I need to get an improvement on the lap time.”

Team-mate Takaaki Nakagami finished 19th on Sunday.