Johann Zarco Finishes 15th in MotoGP Race...On Foot?
Furygan sponsored rider, and one of our personal favorites, Johann Zarco was sitting comfortably in 7th with one lap to go last week at the Gran Premio Tribul Mastercard di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. A comfortable finish, knowing that a few other racers had gone down and wrecked earlier in the race. Unfortunately, with only a few turns left, his Yamaha ran out of gas. He then pulled a miraculous feat by pushing his bike the remaining straightaway down the track, through the checkered flag. This lost him a few spots but allowed him to finish in the points. Zarco had this to say about the unfortunate finish.
"The race was long and was getting less wet step-by-step; this gave me some confidence but not as much as I expected, so I still had to control a lot. In the end I was managing the gap with Redding until the last lap when I had no fuel from Turn 11, so I tried to go step-by-step and keep the fuel until the last corner, but the bike stopped and I had to push the bike on the straight. It was pretty long and when other riders overtook me I thought 'Ah, shame!', but I wanted to go to the end because this is the race mind-set. I took 15th position, so one point – it’s better than nothing.
Heres something you don't see every day. The Frenchman currently sits at 6th in points in the championship race, 50 points behind 5th place Dani Pedrosa who races for Repsol Honda Team. The weather was a problem for most riders as the rain began to die down toward the end of the race. Several riders spoke about the wet conditions prior to and at the beginning of the race. Points leader Marc Marques took P1, coming in hot from P2 and passing the leader at turn 1 of the final lap. The final lap would be the fastest lap of the race. The points leader, Marques, said when he was sitting at 2nd with 20 points in his pocket, he was tempted to play it safe, but then he realized 5 more points could be huge and made his move for the final sprint. He had this to say in conclusion about the race, and his current state in MotoGP.
“The race was amazing. You can’t imagine the tension and focus, so difficult to keep concentration because the race was so long. During the race the feeling was changing, at the start I was struggling more, then I was ok but towards the end is when I felt better. Then I started thinking about the Championship and thought second was enough, but then I thought ‘ok, I have the potential to win and I’ll try because you never know if at the end in Valencia you’ll miss those five points’.