After his superb end to the race in Portugal, Johann Zarco is aiming for a good position on the starting grid to have his say in the Argentine Grand Prix.
Johann Zarco obtained apparently very stable results in Argentina, he who was positioned four tenths from the best time in the first as in the second practice session. This earned him fifth place in a ranking dominated by Aprilia riders, but it is above all the result of a good progress that he managed to obtain during this day and which leaves him this evening with a positive feeling. .
It must be said that after the first quarter of an hour of driving this morning, the Ducati #5 was in last position. “Last in the first run and fifth in the last run of the day, that means we’ve made progress”, he congratulates himself, pleased with a “good first day” on a track that had not left him with a great memory last year.
“The start of the day was a little strange. I like this track, but with the Ducati I have a little too much trouble. The good thing is that we made good progress between the two sessions. At the end of Practice 1, with a new tire, we had already saved this top 10 in case it rains. Finally, we had another dry session this afternoon and, for an hour, I think that ‘we managed to better understand what we need for tomorrow.”
“It’s always linked to the sensations. We managed to find a lot more grip. It’s the basis on this track, with long turns, so fast”, describes the French driver, satisfied to have ticked the first essential box of his weekend: qualify directly for Q2.
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“The main objective was to go straight to Q2 and fifth place is pretty good,” he retains, now ready to delve into his data to try to refine his copy for the second day. It will offer him half an hour of free practice before the big meetings that will be qualifying and the sprint race. And the second objective is very clear in his mind: to place himself well on the grid, to try to improve the results obtained in Portugal, where he finished eighth in the sprint and fourth in the main race.
“I would say that the pace can be good too, so I have to keep my calm, analyze the situation well and take this opportunity to do a good qualifying,” he anticipates. “I hope to be very competitive tomorrow for qualifying, and fight for the front row. It would be the ideal situation to prepare for the sprint race. I’m very happy because normally I struggle with the Ducati, but the improvement I had between the first session this morning and the second this afternoon is quite interesting, so we have to stay on this good wave to continue.”
“I was very impressed by the behavior of the Aprilia”, underlines Johann Zarco, who has not forgotten a 2022 weekend cut off by one day. “Last year they started at a very high level and they kept it over the weekend. It’s the same this weekend but I think the Ducati are much closer than last year, so it’s a good sign.And then, it’s also good for us to have three days of work, unlike last year when we were taken by the throat and we couldn’t breathe. It’s good to have a normal weekend in Argentina!”