2023-10-21 09:22:00
It was enough to drive you crazy. Throw everything away and put your ambitions in the closet for good. In the premier category since 2017, Johann Zarco was often in the photo, never in the foreground. A mess of podiums, a few poles, a lot of hope from his first laps in MotoGP. From his first race in Qatar, he led the pack for six laps before falling. In Valencia, he played for victory against Dani Pedrosa but was satisfied with second place. A fall at Le Mans in 2018 when he had the win in his sights, a victory which slipped under his nose in Argentina while he was in the lead on the 20th lap, a combination which opens up in Barcelona in 2021 while ‘he leads the debates 12 laps from the line…
Over the course of a career full of promise and setbacks, he became the rider with the most podiums and poles without a victory in the history of MotoGP. It’s as if fate has been hard on the Frenchman for six years. Almost every season, he touched on this victory which continued to elude him. And it was almost when we least expected it, at the heart of a less successful season and a sluggish sequence where glitches accumulated, that he ended up concluding, in Australia, and snatched this success which was denied to him on the handlebars of his Pramac – Ducati, the best motorcycle on the grid which he will soon no longer ride. “I was starting to lose hope a bit, admitted the 33-year-old driver at the microphone of Canal +. Even if I try to work as best as possible, certain sensations are difficult to come by. After so many races, finally winning gives me so many emotions… I still have a hard time realizing it.”
After so many races, finally winning gives me so many emotions
We had to wait 120 races and the 20th podium to finally reach the top step. We also had to digest the frustration of a career that was well established, that of being overtaken by a compatriot, Fabio Quartararo, who wasted no time in winning victories and the world title. But this Saturday, down under on the Phillip Island track, it was his moment. “The feeling is incredible, he finally relishes. I made a good start and I had to fight a lot. When I was behind Pecco (Bagnaia), I held on to stay in contact. We saw that Jorge Martin was slowing down a lot and I tried to pass. The long race had to be on Saturday to clear the clock.”
Johann Zarco
Credit: Getty Images
“After so many races, finally winning gives me so much emotion… I still have a hard time realizing it.” As bad luck stuck to him, Zarco was deprived of his very first Marseillaise on the podium. “I told the president of the International Federation that it was scandalous because there was no anthem on the podium,” said Zarco on Canal +. For the first time in my career in MotoGP, I would have liked a little emotion. Still happy that I knew it and that I was able to sing it loud until the end.”
The French driver still sang the anthem a cappella and at the top of his lungs on the top step of the podium. He needed more to ruin this happiness that he had been chasing for seven years and in which he had ended up no longer believing.
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