Zarco: Not a lot is missing, a few tenths will bring a lot

Johann Zarco feels he is still a few tenths away from maximising his potential on the Avintia Ducati after a solid race debut with the team during the Spanish MotoGP.

Though he left himself with work to do from 18th on the grid after a ‘small crash’ in Q1, Zarco made gains in the race to just miss out on a top ten finish in 11th with the Frenchman 12 seconds clear of team-mate Tito Rabat.

Despite feeling as though he didn’t get the result his pace suggested, he feels he isn’t far away from getting the best from the Ducati GP19 and is pleased to be back in Jerez for the Andalucia MotoGP to conduct back-to-back tests.

“All the work we’re going to do we’ll see immediately if it works or not because we’re at the same track,” he said. “For me that’s a very good advantage. First of all being able to be straight in Q2 or improve this time attack that was missing on Saturday. I missed it in the morning but then in Q1 I had a small crash and destroyed completely the beginning of my race.

“Then while I’m working on this time attack, I have to find a way to be a few tenths faster every lap that will be key for the race. Not a lot is missing. Just a few tenths per lap can bring a lot to me.

“Since now I was more adapting to the bike so no more mistakes on the technical side. It was only my tenth day on the bike. That’s why now we will try things now on the bike to see if it’s matching more my style and for this if we have a good progress it will be super positive for the rest of the season.”

His third different machine across a 12-month span after stints with KTM and Honda, Zarco says he is currently losing time by not making the most of the Ducati’s strengths under acceleration and braking.

“For me I was not able to use the strong point of the bike which means acceleration and braking. That’s why I was too slow during the race or fighting too much to keep a high pace because I was not able to really slow down well the bike.

“If you can’t stop the bike everything becomes a bit complicated and that was missing from me in the race.”