The Brazilian MotoGP choice that gave Johann Zarco a hidden advantage

Johann Zarco finished fastest in Practice at the Brazilian MotoGP, but his advantage was actually gained earlier in the day, he thinks.

The French rider finished Practice just over 0.1 seconds ahead of Marc Marquez on the time sheets in a Practice session that started dry-but-patchy and was hit by rain late on. In that sense, it was a little bit of an opposite session to FP1, which started wet but dried out towards the end, with some riders – including Zarco – trying dry tyres in the final minutes.

Zarco explained after Friday’s running in Goiania that his speed in Practice was partly thanks to his choice to run slick tyres at the end of FP1, even though he didn’t improve on his best lap time set with wet tyres in the morning session.

“I’m happy to go straight to Q2 for tomorrow,” Johann Zarco told TNT Sports after Practice in Brazil, “also because we might have tricky conditions tomorrow and Sunday. 

“[In FP1], when I finished the last 10 minutes using the slick tyres just to understand a bit if it was possible to do better or not, we could not do better with the slick than with the rain tyre, but at least I understood many things that helped me a lot to push from the beginning [of Practice]. 

“I got much more confidence than many other riders, and that’s why, when it was the most dry, I’ve been able to catch this 1m21s. But as soon as I got a bit more rain on the first corner, I was scared so I went to the box.”

Zarco added that he was surprised at how fast some riders were able to go after the first sector became wetter.

“Then I was seeing in the straight that we had a bit more rain, but many riders were staying on-track but never improving the first sector,” he said.

“I’ve been impressed by Aldeguer, Alex Marquez, and then Toprak [Razgatlioglu] when they did 1m21-something [...]. That was impressive because, in my opinion, that was more water than at the beginning of the session, but that’s why I didn’t want to risk. 

“I was waiting, I understand that as soon as I see a sector going better, I was ready to go on-track. But it didn’t happen. So, good, happy.”

The LCR Honda rider also had compliments for the circuit, which MotoGP is visiting for the first time this weekend, in particular the fast turn one.

“I love this first corner,” he said. “I think when it will be full dry – if it’s full dry – we will brake very late, go very fast into this corner, and this will give a great feeling. 

“What I like also on this layout: we don’t have hard braking and very small corners like Austin and, for me, keeping a flow can be an advantage for me.”