Zarco and Folger duel it out in Barcelona

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammates Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger made a big impression in the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, crossing the line in P5 and P6 respectively.

First Folger got off to an incredible start and stayed with the front group of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and eventual winner Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), before starting to struggle more with grip. Zarco went the opposite way – moving from further back to catch his teammate in the latter stages before the two men dueled it out. It was the Frenchman who just got the better of the German, but a notable ride from both as the Tech 3 team packed a punch once again.

Johann Zarco, P5: “I am happy with the result but also tired! I think that everyone struggled physically because of the hot weather. With regards to the race, there wasn’t much grip on the track and the tyres dropped. However, this kind of situation is not a big disaster for me and when this happens, I seem to be able to have a better feeling than my opponents. Starting from 14th meant that the opening stage of the race was complicated and I had to fight, plus, it’s easy to touch other riders when it’s like this. I thought that I could catch the leading group during the GP because they were not advancing. Yet, after the halfway point, they were not increasing the gap, but I still couldn’t quite get to them because we were running the same pace as I was. Towards the end, Petrucci crashed, Lorenzo overtook me and opened some distance because he had a better drive and then, Jonas was in front of me. I could see that he was struggling so I kept focused in order to ride a good line and then I attacked him on the last lap. This result is very good for what we need and although it was a difficult weekend, we finished well today so this is really good motivation for the future.”

Jonas Folger, P6: ““It was a very positive but tough weekend and I am so happy that we made a big step forward compared to the last few GP’s. Finally, we made the progress that we wanted to which was to improve in the qualifying and at the beginning of the Grand Prix. By being strong in these two areas, we really advanced and we scored a good result today. However, unfortunately, on the last lap Johann passed me! I was ahead of him for almost the entire race, but then he caught and overtook me. This was the only hard thing for me because I thought that I had him in my pocket. Anyway, the important point is that we advanced and improved so I want to thank all of my team for the work they did to get me back to where I needed to be. They told me that we can do it and today we did.”