Zarco: "I’ll try for another podium"

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rookie takes a stunning first pole position in the #DutchGP

Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took a stunning rookie pole position on Saturday at Assen, besting the difficult wet but improving conditions to steal it last minute from reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). It’s the first pole for a French rider since 2002, when Olivier Jacque started from the front in Germany. Now targeting the podium after a positive finish in Barcelona, the Frenchman is

Johann Zarco, P1: “I’m so happy to be on pole because Saturday is a rainy day but I was feeling good, getting references and confidence on the bike. I still needed to understand the track. I was quite ok then in FP4 it was dry but using wet tyres, and we almost thought we could put on slicks, but then it rained again. I think this extra information helped me to manage qualifying well. In only 15 minutes the idea was to stay on track because as we saw in Q1 that staying out meant people were improving lap by lap. Then I was thinking it was a shame because we could have changed tyres but didn’t have time…but it was conditions I like, dry conditions and wet tyres. I think the others were using too much tyre but I was ok and it was the time to do it. I think I’ll try for another podium. I learned a lot from Barcelona and I said that starting from the first two rows gives us chance to fight for the podium, so from pole is even better! I’m enjoying it and it’s just fantastic…I struggled in Barcelona in practice when I crashed and I was more like a rookie but then in the race I could do a good job. Our target is to be on the podium and one day fight for victories, so starting my rookie season like this it’s just fantastic to be able to fix targets for next season.”