Johann Zarco admits he was riding 'like a guy who was going to buy bread', following a difficult run of races since crashing out of his home MotoGP round at Le Mans in May.
The Tech3 rider started the year in strong fashion, qualifying on pole in Qatar and France, while taking two second-place finishes in Argentina and Spain.
However, since crashing out of the victory battle at Le Mans he has failed to make the top six, admitting in the races immediately after Le Mans that he was suffering from the pressure he put on himself for his home event and to make amends for his tumble.
After regaining “good things” with his M1 during qualifying at Brno and finishing a solid seventh on the soft rear tyre in the race, Zarco admits he is close to fully finding “the real race rider feeling” again.
“Now we are coming back on good things,” he said. “From the Saturday we are quite fast, not enough to be on the podium, but I understood good things this weekend.
“So I'm pretty happy and when everything isn't perfect I'm taking points and that's the main thing at the moment.
“I think I'm close to the real race rider feeling, because maybe in the last races I was racing like a guy who was going to buy the bread every morning.
“Now I can ride the Yamaha well and answer yes, I'm happy.”
Zarco joined Yamaha stablemate Maverick Vinales, Nieto's Alvaro Bautista and KTM's Bradley Smith in gambling on the soft rear tyre, while the majority of the leaders opted for the hard.
Despite failing to advance on his starting spot of seventh, the Frenchman believes it was the correct decision to run the soft option.
“I'm happy about the race, [I had] a good pace, and we were able to fight at the beginning.
“The soft rear tyre was a good choice, I'm happy for that. It helped me to fight at the beginning. Maybe I could have overtaken more riders at the beginning, but it was difficult.
“In the race I tried to do the best I can, and in the end for sure the tyre was getting used and it became a little bit more difficult; not because of the tyre, just because we're working on the bike to find the best feeling.”
