Johann Zarco says his run to 13th in the Australian grand prix at Phillip Island was a “great” start to his stint replacing the injured Takaaki Nakagami at LCR Honda.
Zarco was announced at the Honda satellite squad for the final three races of 2019 after Nakagami elected to move forward a shoulder operation so that he could recover sufficiently as to not affect his plans for ’20.
The Japanese rider has already been announced as continuing with LCR alongside Cal Crutchlow next year, with Zarco’s appointment simply a case of convenience according to team boss Lucio Cecchinello.
The Frenchman got off to a good start with the 12th quickest time in a wet FP1 in his first taste of the RC213-V, before bolstering this with 15th in a dry FP2- two-tenths ahead of factory Honda man Jorge Lorenzo.
He then qualified an impressive 14th before racing to 13th, battling for 11th with KTM’s Pol Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli, as well as crossing the line 40 seconds clear of Lorenzo.
“The race was great, I had a pretty good start as I went with the soft rear due to it being the only one I’ve used all weekend,” said Zarco.
“The hard would probably have been better for consistency over the race but I had no idea about the feeling.
“It’s good to be back because Phillip Island is always a tough race, all the corners are very fast and I’m starting to get the feeling with the Honda and I will take the 13th as motivation to do better in Malaysia.”
The Frenchman split from previous employers KTM shortly prior to the Aragon GP event last month after just 13 races together, and Zarco admitted he relished battling ex-team-mate Espargaro during the contest.
“I had a good start, I could battle with many riders and it’s kind of an anecdotic race as it’s the first with Honda and the main guy I had to fight was Pol Espargaro, and we had a good fight because we overtook each other many times,” explained Zarco.
“Every time I thought I could go a bit quicker to try and catch (Franco) Morbidelli, Pol (Espargaro) attacked again and then we were losing more time.
“Then at the end I was really at the limit and struggling with the rear tyre, particularly on the left side.
“Maybe in these conditions the soft was maybe too soft and this blocked me a little bit in trying to keep my pace in the 31s because my 32s at the end were slow, which didn’t help in my battle with Pol (Espargaro).
“He was able to have a good last lap and just got away from me in the final few corners, he was a bit better than me today but we still took 13th which is okay.”
