Zarco: “I still believe in my chances”

Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) continues to push hard at the top of the 125cc Championship with the final four rounds of the 2011 campaign set to commence, and the French rider still believes that his chances of fighting for the last ever 125cc crown are not finished.

Despite lying 36 points behind leader and rival Nico Terol, Zarco still holds hope that he can clinch his first Grand Prix win and push the Spaniard all the way. Zarco has finished second in six of the last eight races, the most recent last Sunday’s GP at Aragón where he fought with Terol’s team-mate Héctor Faubel until the last corner where the Spaniard crashed out.

“He didn’t want to go ahead and I told myself I needed to go at my own pace,” said Zarco, who avoided going down himself as Faubel slid out in front of him. “For the end of the race my idea was to maintain a fast pace which would force Faubel to push to the limit and it worked, he had to take too many risks to try and get in front of me and he wasn’t able to do it.”

Zarco has been agonisingly close to victory on a number of occasions this season. He crossed the line first at Catalunya but was penalised for his last corner move on Terol and subsequently demoted to sixth position, was beaten to victory in Germany by Faubel in a photo finish and looked set for a win at Misano where Terol beat him to the line despite coming out of the final corner behind the Frenchman.

In spite of the frustrations the 21 year-old remains fully focused, with the Grand Prix of Japan his next opportunity to take that elusive first win.

“I still believe in my chances,” he said. “You always have to believe and the aim is to win races. According to Laurent (Fellon, Zarco’s manager), Motegi is a circuit where I can beat him and we’ll do everything possible to do that.”

“Prior to this year I’ve always had difficulties at Motegi, but this year I have a different team, a different bike, and I’m going to try and be fast from the first practice session, set fast times and ensure I’m competitive in the race,” concluded Zarco, who reached an agreement at Aragón with the JiR team to make the step up to Moto2 next season.